The Sea Inside (2004)
(Mar Adentro)
Country: SP/FR/IT
Technical: col/Super 35 126m
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas
Synopsis:
A Galician quadraplegic fights for the right to end the twenty-eight years he has spent being looked after by his family following a diving accident because his life lacks dignity. He employs a lawyer to represent him who herself has a degenerative condition, but complications arise when she falls in love with him.
Review:
Films about euthanasia are hard to bring off and from the start this one struggles to find the right tone, bordering on the trite in its mixture of gallows humour and sentiment. The director has dealt with death before and is clearly more successful in a fantastic framework, hence the fantasmagorical flourishes that punctuate the narrative; he rehearses the arguments in favour of the lead character's objective as effectively as he adumbrates the complications involved when his own family who have invested so much love and care are ultimately rejected by his resolve to die. And there are other felicities, not least Bardem's performance, a physical tour de force of makeup and contortion and a remarkable mastery of the Gallego dialect, besides being humorous and touching in equal measure. But in the end this is surprisingly straight emotional stuff for a Spanish film, with none of the full-blooded panache of an Almodóvar, Medem or Luna.
(Mar Adentro)
Country: SP/FR/IT
Technical: col/Super 35 126m
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas
Synopsis:
A Galician quadraplegic fights for the right to end the twenty-eight years he has spent being looked after by his family following a diving accident because his life lacks dignity. He employs a lawyer to represent him who herself has a degenerative condition, but complications arise when she falls in love with him.
Review:
Films about euthanasia are hard to bring off and from the start this one struggles to find the right tone, bordering on the trite in its mixture of gallows humour and sentiment. The director has dealt with death before and is clearly more successful in a fantastic framework, hence the fantasmagorical flourishes that punctuate the narrative; he rehearses the arguments in favour of the lead character's objective as effectively as he adumbrates the complications involved when his own family who have invested so much love and care are ultimately rejected by his resolve to die. And there are other felicities, not least Bardem's performance, a physical tour de force of makeup and contortion and a remarkable mastery of the Gallego dialect, besides being humorous and touching in equal measure. But in the end this is surprisingly straight emotional stuff for a Spanish film, with none of the full-blooded panache of an Almodóvar, Medem or Luna.
(Mar Adentro)
Country: SP/FR/IT
Technical: col/Super 35 126m
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas
Synopsis:
A Galician quadraplegic fights for the right to end the twenty-eight years he has spent being looked after by his family following a diving accident because his life lacks dignity. He employs a lawyer to represent him who herself has a degenerative condition, but complications arise when she falls in love with him.
Review:
Films about euthanasia are hard to bring off and from the start this one struggles to find the right tone, bordering on the trite in its mixture of gallows humour and sentiment. The director has dealt with death before and is clearly more successful in a fantastic framework, hence the fantasmagorical flourishes that punctuate the narrative; he rehearses the arguments in favour of the lead character's objective as effectively as he adumbrates the complications involved when his own family who have invested so much love and care are ultimately rejected by his resolve to die. And there are other felicities, not least Bardem's performance, a physical tour de force of makeup and contortion and a remarkable mastery of the Gallego dialect, besides being humorous and touching in equal measure. But in the end this is surprisingly straight emotional stuff for a Spanish film, with none of the full-blooded panache of an Almodóvar, Medem or Luna.