| THE SEA INSIDE Mar adentro |
 2004 - Spain / France / ItalyDirector: Alejandro Amenábar
- Reviewed by Vickie
Based on the last years of the real-life Galician, Sea follows Sampedro in his final efforts to win the right to die with dignity. Left paralyzed from the neck down after a fateful diving accident some 28 years earlier, Sampedro—a cheerful, funny and warm-hearted mechanic-turned-writer—is ready to end his life, but he needs help to do so and wants to ensure that anyone assisting with his suicide not be criminally prosecuted. Julia (Spanish TV personality Belén Rueda, in a positively sublime big-screen debut) is an attorney battling her own degenerative disease, who signs on to assist with legal matters and slowly becomes Ramón’s confidante and soulmate. Sampedro’s well-publicized struggles also attract the attention of scattered single-mother Rosa (Lola Dueñas), who enters Ramón’s world with the dual intent of finding a purpose to her own life, and making him see why he should continue to live his. Relationships rest at the heart of The Sea Inside—Ramón’s relationship with his loving family, who have essentially sacrificed everything to care for him, and his emerging relationships with the two vastly different women who wind up on his doorstep. Both women grow to love him, and both subsequently struggle with what the future will hold. Through each character, the audience is given a different point of view with which to empathize. The right to die is quietly and subtly debated as the action progresses, but it’s done in such a delicate, thoughtful manner that it never seems preachy or self-righteous or argumentative. It’s easy to see why Ramón’s friends and family want him to live: his presence is a light in their lives, and his charming, self-deprecating personality makes him irresistibly likable. But it’s also very easy to see why he would want to die, and how much he feels that his condition is an undignified burden to himself and others. Again, Bardem is remarkable in the lead role. Acting from the neck up, he often has nothing but his eyes to convey Ramón’s thoughts and emotions, and yet they leap off the screen and into your heart. He becomes Ramón Sampedro, mind, body and spirit. Equally impressive is Rueda, whose performance is so perfectly nuanced and poignant that it’s astounding to think this woman is best known as a comedienne. And well-known Spanish actress Lola Dueñas manages to deftly build a character who’s alternately manically needy and, ultimately, remarkably strong and selfless. You will likely cry big tears during The Sea Inside. You may even break down into muffled, heaving sobs like I did. But a strange thing may happen to you as the credits begin to roll and it dawns on you that perhaps the story of Ramón Sampedro is actually an empowering, inspirational one. Perhaps its inevitable conclusion is peaceful and right, and maybe this beautiful story has happy ending, after all. |
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It’s a testament to the dedication of Javier Bardem and the filmmakers
that, until a flashback sequence midway through The Sea Inside,
you completely forget that the actor playing 55-year-old quadriplegic
Ramón Sampedro is, in fact, only 35 years old. Bardem completely
disappears into the role, both physically and psychologically, and the
result is a breathtaking performance in a truly inspirational and
surprisingly uplifting story.
