The Sea Inside: Death to Adults!


This movie is a mature and rational meditation on death - a topic rarely covered to this depth in film. The director (Alejandro Amenábar who did The Others, etc) does a great job of visualizing the dilemna of being trapped in an unwanted life through imagery of water and flight, and Javier Bardem is awesome as the lead character, who at times almost glows with the certainty of his conviction to his quest. That being said, I did feel it was a tad too long, and on it's opening weekend in a premier movie theatre, I was alone at my screening - I guess everyone was next door meditating on death through Assault on Precinct 13 - which btw is good - but you've just got to meditate on each death much quicker before the next one comes along...

4 out of 5.

(PS: It did get me thinking that perhaps state sanctioned euthanasia, though something we compassionately grant to our suffering housepets, may not be the best route, because I'm sure it wouldn't take long for the government to start selling mandatory licences or something of that ilk...)

C-, shallow and insulting.

B+


I was only about 30 minutes into this film when the following thought popped into y head: "Why the hell did the Academy not nominate Javer Bardem for Best Actor?!". Becuase he sure as hell deserved it for his portrayal of Ramon Sampedro's struggle for the right to be able to determine the end of his life by himself. Now I don't know much about the real Sampedro, except for what I read on Wikipedia prior to seeing the film, but Bardem just plays the character with such joy, energy and yet, also vulnerability and sometimes anger as well as bitterness. He manages to play up to all the different facettes of his character equally well and by far outshines everyone else in this film. That, however, in a way hurts the film, since it also tries to focus on the people around Ramon and that's the parts that I found to be a tad distracting. It should have been a little more focused, in my opinion. Some of the scenes revolving around Ramon's friends and family were a tad distracting and frankly, unnecessary. Maybe that was to show their devotion to Ramon, but in any case it didn't work too well for me.

Moreover, I wish the movie had focused more on Ramon's struggle to achieve his goal (considering he spent more than 20 years of his life trying to get there). What I did like, however, was how it didn't really try to portray Ram,on as a great or perfect human being. He was just....normal and natural. Very much thanks to Bardem's nuanced performance. The rest of the film doesn't stand out as much as his turn does and I don't really think it deserved the Best Foreign Picture win (I think you know what movie I'd have picked), but it's a good flick and it gets its message across in a very good and non-preaching way.