... The SEA INSIDE is a great example, it's main character being a man you have to like enough so as not to want him to die whilst understanding and ultimately respecting his decision to die. It is a difficult persona to adopt but master actor Javier Bardem, the Spanish equivalent of Robert De ... Read review
Winner of the 2004 Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival Javier Bardem gives a ... more
remarkable unforgettable performance in Alejandro Amenabar's gripping drama about dying with dignity 'The Sea Inside'. Thirty-five-year-old Bardem plays 55-year-...
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Based on the profoundly moving true story that captured the world's attention, The Sea ... more
Inside is about Spaniard Ramon Sampedro (played by Oscar nominee Javier Bardem), who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. The sto...
The right to enjoy life and end it with dignity is at thecontroversial core of Alejandro ... more
Amenbar's Academy Award winningdrama. Golden Globe nominee Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls,Collateral) delivers one of the year's most unforgettableperformances as poet and quadriplegic Ramn Sampedro in a literalfight for his life. Based on a true story, Sampedro's 30-yearstruggle with the Spanish government and the Catholic Church forthe right to die inspired both an outpouring of support andcriticism from his family, friends and strangers.
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Advantages: Javier Bardem, great score Disadvantages: A trifle ordinary
Alejandro Amenabar's THE SEA INSIDE (MAR ADENTRO) was released in 2004, five years after his cult Spanish favourite OPEN YOUR EYES (ABRE LOS OJOS), the psychological thriller, unfortunately inspired Cameron Crowe to make his dreadful remake VANILLA SKY with Tom Cruise. After a quick foray to America for his first English speaking film, THE OTHERS, a horror starring Nicole Kidman, he then returned home to Spain to tinker with another genre, this time ... ...thirty years, completely paralysed from the waist down. As defunct as his body is, his mind is arrow sharp with thoughts of ending his life as he spends his long drawn-out days in bed awaiting a court's decision, after decades of legal toing-and-froing, to finally give him the right to die in a country where suicide is not only illegal but, ironically, Spanish judicial procedures are expected to take a lifetime anyway. He is cared for by his devoted ... more
Alejandro Amenabar's THE SEA INSIDE (MAR ADENTRO) was released in 2004, five years after his cult Spanish favourite OPEN YOUR EYES (ABRE LOS OJOS), the psychological thriller, unfortunately inspired Cameron Crowe to make his dreadful remake VANILLA SKY with Tom Cruise. After a quick foray to America for his first English speaking film, THE OTHERS, a horror starring Nicole Kidman, he then returned home to Spain to tinker with another genre, this time a traditional melodrama.
Ramon Sampedro has been a quadriplegic for thirty years, completely paralysed from the waist down. As defunct as his body is, his mind is arrow sharp with thoughts of ending his life as he spends his long drawn-out days in bed awaiting a court's decision, after decades of legal toing-and-froing, to finally give him the right to die in a country where suicide is not only illegal but, ironically, Spanish judicial procedures are expected to take a lifetime anyway. He is cared for by his devoted family and is regularly visited by people charmed by his self-deprecating sense of humour, most notably a lonely single mother with low esteem and his new lawyer, Julia. Although Julia is married she and Ramon's relationship quickly borders between professional and romantic, owing to a strong bond between them, and before long, before he can analyse the situation, he unexpectedly finds he loves both women, one of whom he hopes will ultimately love him enough to help him die.
If my suspicions are correct that Amenabar is surfing through the different types of cinematic genres then he can certainly scribble melodrama off his list because in its own terms THE SEA INSIDE is classic melodrama. All the ingredients are there, wedged in, and all the tears are there, soaked through, but how much of it is new? If you can stop crying long enough to consider this question the disappointing answer is quite clear. Nothing is new. It is an emotionally draining true story and hooray for solid factual retellings of events that have happened but how many of these can you see on afternoon television every day? Films based on true stories are a given, if you can't fault them then it's likely you probably shouldn't. Does anything, then, differentiate THE SEA INSIDE to all the others?
Melodramas, traditionally, of course, are not easy films to watch, which is why the biggest problem for the majority of them is that something in the production, usually the acting, doesn't quite match up to the dramatic premise of the film. The SEA INSIDE is a great example, it's main character being a man you have to like enough so as not to want him to die whilst understanding and ultimately respecting his decision to die. It is a difficult persona to adopt but master actor Javier Bardem, the Spanish equivalent of Robert De Niro, pulls off another astonishing performance, so astonishing it isn't only Ramon's family who grieves his final departure but us, the audience as well, pulling us in so that the people who care for Ramon, his family and friends, and the audience are, by the end of the film, as one. An astonishing achievement.
Amenabar, as writer, director, editor and musical composer, has with THE SEA INSIDE, if not created a great film, contributed to his tiny but perfectly condensed oeuvre with his best film yet. From psychological thriller to horror to conventional melodrama I wouldn't be surprised if his next outing is something once again entirely different. Neither would I be surprised if everything he's done up until now has been the auteur's own personal apprentiship to eventual greatness. I for one am very excited at the prospect. A very good film.
Advantages: Marvellous performances and a sensitive script Disadvantages: The subject matter is contentious
for him and a larger world he can never be part of. This is what gives the fantasy sequences such emotional heft, like when an hour into the film Ramón gets slowly out of his bed and launches himself from the window, flying across the landscape, out to the sea. Amenábar?s sense of place is so strong that you can practically smell the farm Sampedro lives at and feel the salt tang of the ocean when he visits it in his daydreams. Similarly the director?s use of time-lapse photography to show the passing of time is effective because it?s all shot from Ramón?s point of view showing that though the outside world is changing, he is not.
The screenplay by Amenábar and co-writer Mateo Gil is an accomplished piece that concentrates on Ramón?s enduring drive to end his life rather than his incapacitation. Ironically he is never more alive than when ...
Directors Commentary, Storyboards, Photo And Set Design Galleries, Deleted Scenes, Documentary A Trip To The Sea Inside
Aspect Ratio
2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Dubbing Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Spanish
DVD Description
Javier Bardem gives a remarkable, unforgettable performance in Alejandro Amenabar's gripping drama about dying with dignity, THE SEA INSIDE. Thirty-five-year-old Bardem plays 55-year-old Ramon Sampedro, a Galician who broke his neck as a young man and has spent more than a quarter of a century as a quadriplegic, confined to bed. Reflecting on his past and considering his future, he chooses to die, petitioning the courts for permission to be euthanized. His radical decision sets off controversy throughout Spain--as well as in his own house, where his family and friends all have different opinions on the fate he has chosen. While Ramon's father (Alberto Gimenez) and brother (Celso Bugallo) refuse to help him die, and his nephew, Javi (Tamar Novas), tries to understand his uncle's decision, Ramon is surrounded by women who virtually fight over him--Rosa (Lola Duenas), a single mother of two who visits him to talk about her difficult life; Manuela (Mabel Rivera), his sister-in-law who takes care of his daily needs; Gene (Clara Segura), who works for the Death with Dignity organization; and Julia (Belen Rueda, in a powerful film debut), a married lawyer with a secret of her own. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, THE SEA INSIDE is a special film with marvellous acting, a strong soundtrack, a moving story, and an enchanting visual style that features poetic shots of the countryside as Ramon dreams he can fly.
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