"The Sea Inside" (2004)

(Originally released as Mar Adentro.)

Starring: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, Mabel Rivera, Celso Bugallo, Clara Segura

First, the lowdown: A quadriplegic fights for his right to die.

Ramon Sampedro wants to die. After a diving accident rendered him quadriplegic, Ramon set his eyes on ending his life to avoid being a further burden to his brother and sister-in-law who care for him. With the assistance of a “death with dignity” charity, he has been petitioning the local governments to be allowed to terminate his life, but given his condition, that would mean someone else would have to assist him, making that person a murderer in the eyes of the law.

A lawyer, Julia, agrees to take on Ramon’s case pro bono. But Julia’s intentions are more selfish than most other realize: Julia suffers from a degenerative neurological disorder that makes every step a walking minefield. Her walking already hampered by the loss of one leg, Julia knows that as her condition progresses she could go blind – or worse. Julia seeks to end her life too because she is weary of living in fear of what the next day may take away from her.

Rosa, a local girl, sees an interview with Ramon and is intrigued by a man who wants to kill himself, but doesn’t want to be pitied or judged. Filled with good intentions, Rosa visits Ramon with the naïve hope that she can talk him out of his quest to end his life, but instead is frustrated by Ramon’s tightly knit (and somewhat abrasive) intelligence. However, she does not let that dissuade her from wanting to help Ramon.

For a movie that is highly politically charged, there isn’t too much soap-boxing done. Most political discussions are derailed by Ramon’s sly wit and uncompromising philosophy. A very telling scene has a Jesuit priest, also a quadriplegic, arriving at Ramon’s house to debate, only to be unable to reach Ramon’s bedroom because his wheelchair won’t fit up the stairwell. The debate is carried out by one of the priest’s aides, who has to jog up and down a flight of stairs to pass messages between the two men.

One other thing that is interesting to note about this film: while the film is ultimately about a man’s desire to end his life on his own terms, most of the movie goes into the celebration of life and of hope. Rosa loses her job because of a factory closure, but still finds strength of her own. Gene, a woman with the “death with dignity” charity, falls in love with Marc, a lawyer in Julia’s firm, and the two have a child together. Even Ramon’s sister-in-law overlooks his desire for death because she loves caring for him.

When I started watching this movie I kept sighing, “There’s no way this would’ve been released in America.” Euthanasia is a hot button issue over here, and like all hot-button issues, it is used as a means to garner votes rather than address cultural ramifications. If anything, the incident involving Terri Schiavo only served to underscore what lengths politicians will go to in order to push forward their own selfish agendas and had nothing to do with morality. One point that the movie presses forward is: if a person does not have the right to end his or her own life, who does that life belong to then?

Line of the movie: “When you can't escape, and you constantly rely on everyone else, you learn to cry by smiling, you know?”

Five stars. Oh the tintinnabulation of the bells.