The Sea Inside [DVD] [2005]

This story is about a couragous man, Ramon Sampedro, who became a quadraplegic due to a diving accident. 28 years later he choses to end his life because he can no longer live imprisoned in a useless body. He is tired of depending on others and yet he loves his family and those around him who did so much to make his life meaningful. Initially, he hires a lawyer to bring his case to court, to try to end his life legally. His lawyer is a woman, Julia, who has a disability which the viewer later learns is a chronic debilitating heart condition. She empathizes with Ramon's situation and begins to appreciate his finer qualities as she delves into his past and how it affects him when disabled. She wants to understand him as a total human being, not just a person with a handicap. Ramon also develops a relationship with another woman named Rose, who learns of his plight and visits him often. She becomes the person who perhaps comes closest to meeting his emotional needs ...

The film is shot artistically and realistically ... Alejandro Amendabar, the film producer, director, and creater of the musical score did a fabulous job of making a film which tackles a difficult subject - euthanasia. He made a film which shows the dignity of a human being who had a serious health problem, who made a conscious decision which few around him could accept. The personality of Ramon shines within this film. Javier Bardem plays Ramon showing a person who has a sense of humor as well as all human traits. Most amazing is how Javier Bardem holds his body stiffly, keeps his hands contracted, and his back arched, looking exactly like a paralyzed person. The views outside Ramon's window are stunning ... When he daydreams of flying and having a fully functioning body, the scenery of the mountains, streams, and shoreline of the beach are spectacular.

The ethics and conflicts which Ramon faces are felt by his family and everyone associated with his case. Julia and her assistant review the current laws and recognize the challenges which they will be facing when his case is brought to court. They want Ramon to go before the judges and explain his views ... believing in person he may sway them to understand his plight. Ramon has not been outside for many years and hates wheelchairs. Yet he sees this may be his best option to achieve his goal. He makes design alterations to his wheelchair which his family builds for him. He goes to court, the cameras are rolling ... His lawyers plead his case but the judges on a legal technicality, deny Ramon any time to speak. His request to die with dignity at a time of his choosing becomes the top news on television, the radio and in the newspapers ... A Catholic priest who is also paralyzed and in a wheelchair presents the case for life and surmizes before the cameras that perhaps Ramon has not received enough love from his family and is looking for this ... Manuela, his sister-in-law who has cared for Ramon during most of his paralysis is offended and hurt by the priest's allegations. She gets a chance to confront him, when the priest makes a visit to discuss Ramon's decision with him personally ... Ramon is confronted by his brother who adamantly states, that as head of the family, he will not allow anyone to kill himself in his house. The emotional toll of his decision on the family is shown fully and with sensitivity. It happens that at the end Ramon chooses to leave his home with one of his women friends to visit a seaside resort. This is where his final days are spent.

The point of the film was to present life as it is lived from the POV of Ramon a paraplegic who is totally dependent on others. The whole idea was that in a mainly Catholic society (Spain) there was ONE person who stood *against* the majority (who believed it is a sin to commit suicide). He was trapped in a paraplegic body and wanted OUT. His family showed they loved/cared/sacrificed for him, no matter how it affected themselves and how it strained their relationships. At times, they were at emotional breaking points. The film was so outstanding I can not say enough about it. I had tears in my eyes often throughout the film. My highest recommendations. Be prepared to use up several boxes of tissues ...

Erika Borsos (pepper flower)

Your personal position on euthanasia will probably determine whether or not you consider the life of Ramón Sampedro to be inspirational. But his story as told in "Mar adentro" ("The Sea Inside") certainly provides food for thought. Ramón became a quadriplegic at the age of 26 and when this 2004 film begins he has spent even more years confined to a bed. He could be in a wheelchair, but Ramón refuses. What he wants is for the Spanish courts to grant him the right to die. His reason is that he does not find the life he is living to be one of dignity. Ramón does not judge those who are in a situation similar to his own who want to go on living, but for him life has become unbearable and he wants to have the dignity that he is denied in life by dying.

The great irony is that for the most part you would not know this his life was so unbearable to look at Ramón (Javier Bardem, in a wonderfully understated and captivating performance). He is articulate and smiles often, showing both wit and humor in his conversations with others. Ramón can still write, using a pen that he holds in his mouth. Far from being neglected, his sister-in-law, Manuela (Mabel Rivera), has been taking good care of him, aided by her son, Javi (Tamar Novas). But his brother, José (Celso Bugallo), wants Ramón to stop talking about wanting to die and their father wonders how a son of his could want to give up on life. Still, Ramón thinks mainly of the empty part of the glass of life and is pushing his case in court against a legal system that apparently wants nothing to do with him or his thorny issue.

What is different at this point in his quest are two women who become involved in Ramón's life. Julia (Belen Rueda), is a lawyer who is suffering from a degenerative disease and he has picked her because he thinks she will be more sympathetic to his cause. What he does not anticipate is that they would fall in love with each other. Then there is Rosa (Lola Duenas), a local woman who decides she has to visit him and becomes part of his support group as well, even if articulating her motives is beyond her capability. The addition of this two women changes things for Ramón who insists that the greatest show of love his family and friends can have for him is to allow him to die. Trapped by the refusal of any one friend to do all that he needs, Ramón finds a way to make their piecemeal support enough.

"Mar adentro" does a good job of presenting both sides of the issue. The only party to the dispute that comes out looking bad are the courts, that seem to prefer sidestepping the issue by ruling on technicalities rather than making a direct ruling. Ultimately, what Ramón has going for him is that he is so reasonable. His anger is usually reserved for Javi on such mundane points of life as the placement of a comma in a sentence, and there is only one night where Ramón sinks into the depths of despair and cries out in the night, asking why it is that he wants to die. But there are other sequences in the film that answer that question, showing through the literal flights of Ramón's imagination the maddening limitations of his daily routine. In the end, Alejandro Amenabar's film does not ask you to either endorse or accept Ramón's decision, but simply to understand its rationality.

The issues underpinning this film are ones which provoke the strongest of opinions, with very few being able to occupy a grey middle-ground. Who has the right to decide when a life should end, when the holder of that life wants his to stop, but needs help to achieve that end?

This film is no dreary discourse on the ethics of euthanasia. Nor is it a life-affirming piece filled with cod philosophy and hope. What it is is a masterfully-acted sweep of underplayed emotion and artistic film-making which simply captivates. The acting is superb. There are characters here who make you weep - not through overplaying the emotionally-charged subject matter, but by quietly shouldering the events that life has thrown at them, dealing with them, and simply making the best of them. Optimism and despair are threaded through every minute of this film.

The film itself is breathtaking. There are long shots of the landscape and the sea; these, set against the tightly-framed shots set inside the quadriplegic Ramon's room, eloquently speak of his captive physical life while his mind is flying free. Amazing.