The Dead Sea

By Charles Mitchell

There comes a time in a man’s life when he must choose his own path, even if that path is death. In Alejandro Amenabar’s the Sea Inside, the idea that choosing your destiny can mean ending your life is examined in the meticulousness that only a narrative based on a true story could offer. The screenplay is derived from a real court case of a quadriplegic who fought the Spanish courts for the right to euthanasia. In the silver screen version, Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem) suffers a terrible accident as a young and vibrant connoisseur of life. But the tragedy disables him not only physically but more so emotionally. He spends his days -- and years -- lying in bed and wishing to escape out of the bedroom window to a world that is now as intangible as any feeling below his waist

While his family struggles to take care of him and objects to his wish to end it all, two women enter his world: One who fights for his right to die and other who fights to give him reason to live. Regardless of the ruling, Ramon views his existence as already lost in the accident almost 30 years earlier. However, If the assisted suicide is granted, it’s really those around him who fear that they would have no reason to go on and would drown in the sea of their own remorse and regret

Javis Bardem shines in the Sea Inside

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