Tough Love
Bardem excels as lively man facing death in powerful, disturbing "Sea Inside"

This year's Foreign Language Oscar-winner is an affecting and powerful drama from Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar. Best known for the spooky, edgy thrillers Open Your Eyes (the source material for the Tom Cruise remake, Vanilla Sky), and The Others, Amenábar's new film is no horror movie, yet it's often profoundly disturbing because of the enormity of its subject: life and death, and a person's right to choose between the two.

Scripted by Amenábar and his writing partner Mateo Gil, this is the true story of Ramón Sampedro, a onetime merchant seaman paralyzed in a diving accident who spent 30 years waging a famous and controversial legal campaign in Spain for the right to end his life. But the Rámon in the film is anything but morose, as played by the naturally robust and compelling Spanish actor Javier Bardem; even confined to a bed for most of the film, able to move only his head, and eyes, and mouth, Bardem conveys a complex personality of deep passion, wit, and intelligence, who has had a long time to consider the consequences of his actions.

Ensconced in an old stone farmhouse in the lush hill country outside of Barcelona with a family of loving caretakers, Rámon has more life than most of us. He writes poetry, designs mechanical devices, and has a magnetic effect on the women whose lives he alters: saucy Gené (Clara Segura), his caseworker from the Death With Dignity foundation, Rosa (Lola Dueñas), a scattered, but spirited young single mother and part-time radio dj who wants to "save" him, and elegant lawyer Julia (Belén Rueda), herself battling a degenerative disease, who forms an intese bond with Rámon. But loving Rámon has its price, as he struggles to find the one with enough compassion and courage to help him accomplish the unthinkable.

The movie makes us uncomfortable by forcing us to face the inevitability of death (and there are some harrowing moments), and by refusing to offer easy answers, either for Rámon or for the loved ones he would force to give him up. Yet Amenábar's compassion for all viewpoints, and the emotional resonance and masterful skill of his storytelling make the film unforgettable. (A stunning fantasy shot of soaring over the hills to the sea may be the most excting piece of film imagery you'll see all year.)

THE SEA INSIDE With Javier Bardem. Written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil. Directed by Alejandro Amenábar. (PG-13) 125 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles. (***1/2.)
Review published in Good Times, March 3, 2005