The Sea Inside

Directed By: Alejandro Amenabar
2004
Won the Oscar for best foreign film

Cast:
Javier Bardem - Ramon Sampedro
Lola Duenas - Julia
Mabel Rivera - Rosa

Set in Spain, the Sea Inside details the true-life struggle of Ramon Sampedro, played by Javier Bardem, to end his life after a debilitating accident has left him paralyzed from below the neck. He sees his existence as unacceptable and even sub-human. Ramon is confined to a bed and takes flights of the imagination to experience the outside world. Perhaps the best scenes in this movie are when we get inside the mind of Ramon and fly though the countryside.
We learn how he received his injury - when he dove into dangerously shallow water. Ramon stills loves the sea - it has an awesome power for him. For as he says it was the sea that gave him life and the sea that took it away. Ramon has people wishing he wouldn’t kill himself, like his brother and the Catholic church and those who want to help in his cause like Julia (Lola Duenas), his attorney who also has a debilitating illness that over time robs her of her physical as well as mental health.
Another woman, Rosa (Mabel Rivera), being unlucky with love and out of a job finds herself doting over Ramon. She tells him that Ramon gives her a reason to go on.
Despite its ethical dimensions and of course the subject of death and dying this film also has a lot to say about living. Interspersed are scenes of love, birth, and just plain life.
Ramon is a strong character and Javier Bardem plays him with much integrity. He is a man who cherishes perhaps the one freedom he has left - his freedom to choose. In one particular scene he is arguing with a priest. The priest insists he isn’t free to kill himself. Ramon replies in so many words that no one is free to take away his freedom.

4 stars