The
Sea Inside
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Distributed by: Fine Line Features
Released: September 2004
Country: Spain
Sometime
prior to starting My BFF Project, I saw two movies from Spain that I found to
be masterpieces of cinema—The Spirit of
the Beehive, from 1973, and 2006’s Pan’s
Labyrinth. Both of these movies
were odd little films that surprised me—I had no anticipation that I would like them at all as a caught
them quite by chance (years apart) on Turner Classic Movies or IFC or whatever
network that would show films like this.
Neither of those movies is a Best Foreign Film winner (rightly so, admittedly, in the
latter film’s case, though it was nominated—it lost to Germany’s The
Lives of Others). This week’s movie, 2004's The Sea Inside, beat
another movie from Germany, the captivating Downfall. Downfall chronicles the demise of Adolph
Hitler, and is the source of a thousand Internet memes (with der Führer ranting
about everything from having to watch Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess with the Zohan, to how awful Rebecca Black’s
"Friday" video is, to the length of time for a pizza delivery. Google "Downfall Meme" if you haven't seen it).
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| Greg Louganis: Dude's shorts held no secrets |
I
wish I were reviewing Downfall, or
one of the other Spanish films, or even one of the Downfall memes, rather than The
Sea Inside. It’s not that this film
is awful, but just that it’s so clichéd and tiresome. The Sea
Inside is based, fairly faithfully it seems, on the story of Ramón Sampedro,
who as a young man, did a Louganis into a shallow sea he thought was deep, resulting in his becoming
a quadriplegic. Now he is 25 years older, having been cared for by his brother’s family most of his adult
life. Ramón is witty and charming to
everyone and in fact, becomes the object of attraction to not one, but two
women he encounters: a local woman who
is trying to convince him that life is worth living, and his attorney who is
trying to legally allow him to kill himself.
Ramón,
expertly played by Javier Bardem from the Coen Brothers' No
Country for Old Men (and who is more interested in killing everyone else in
that film) is indeed likeable and his situation naturally brings sympathy. He feels that he should have
the right to end what he considers is a unfruitful life, one where he is only
able to envision what he loves in his mind’s eye, the Sea being at the top of the list. Of course, the law, and even worse, that pesky
old Catholic Church, are what stands in his way of guzzling down his hemlock and calling it a day. The Church is personified
by a crusty old priest who himself is confined to a wheelchair. Naturally, the priest is depicted as an old curmudgeon, telling everyone suicide is wrong and putting his churchy morals on
everyone. What a killjoy.
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| Mean priest |
I
don’t mean to be too judgmental here, except to push back against the film’s
hammer-over-the-head pro-euthanasia message.
In my early 20’s (in 1991), I spent a week in the hospital roomed with a
guy about my age who, like Bardem’s character, had become a quadriplegic after
a diving accident. He was in the
hospital for a longshot experimental surgery. I
don’t remember his name, nor did I ever see him again, but I do remember how we
spent a significant amount of time that week talking and cracking each other
up. Once, while a well-meaning young
nurse was shifting him in his bed, he cried out in pain. Reacting to her surprised and apologetic expression,
he began laughing, reminding her that he had no feeling at all below his neck. I thought of my one-week roomie while
watching this movie, and how much I admired the optimistic way he looked at
things, if only for that one week we spent together.
Conversely, in this film, there was little to feel uplifted about. Honestly, while watching The Sea Inside, I think I wanted to end it just as bad as Ramón did. But for me, it was just the movie I wanted to end.
Conversely, in this film, there was little to feel uplifted about. Honestly, while watching The Sea Inside, I think I wanted to end it just as bad as Ramón did. But for me, it was just the movie I wanted to end.
The Title: Mar adentro—Enjoying the sea from inside one’s
brain. Not to be heartless, but if I
ever lose use of my body by diving into the sea, I think the sea would be the
last thing I will want to ponder. I think I'd opt for imagining myself in a setting a little more to my liking, so my movie would therefore be: The Buffalo Wild Wings Inside.
The Culture: The only thing Spanish about this film was
the language and the dying influence of the Catholic Church’s values on Western
European.
Agenda Danger: Are you kidding me? Jack Kevorkian could have directed this. Euthanasia must have been a hot trend since
because the Academy also rewarded . . .
Best Picture that year: Million Dollar Baby.
Rating: Do I recommend it? Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein!
