(M) The Sea Inside ( Alejandro Amenabar, 2004) Grade: B
Number one, I am completely for assisted suicide, euthenasia, or whatever you want to call it. Now, I enjoyed this movie but it's hard for me to believe that it was deserving to win Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. There has got to be a handful if not more films that came out elsewhere in the world better than this. Don't get me wrong though, I liked it.
Okay so this is about a poet who wants to die because he is paralyzed from the neck down. He wants some friends to help him kill himself but there is that risk of the friends going to jail. He tries to get the government to allow the right to die but it's a no go. He comes into contact with quite a few people who try to help him fulfill his wishes but it seems like deep down none of them actually want him to kill himself because they'll miss him. That's understandable because they love him and he can still function and talk and be a human (unlike some current residents in Florida who should be allowed to die).
I wish they focused more on his poetry life. I was left empty about it. Was he a poet before his accident that caused his condition or did he become one after? I'd like to have heard more about his poems and if he was ever successful and how his poetry did after all is said and done. I was also really interested in his life before his accident. It showed pictures of him in places all over the world and I was curious about the places he went. I wish it had focused on more of his life rather than that one segment of it.
Anyway, it's something to watch and think about.