The Sea Inside (2004)
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Ramón Sampedro is a ship mechanic and part-time poet left a quadriplegic following a diving accident. Ramón fought for 30 years for the legal right to end his own life. He develops close relationships with his long-term lawyer Julia and his friend Rosa, who tries to convince him that his life is worth living. Despite his situation, Ramón manages to inspire those around him to live life to the fullest.
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What critics compared The Sea Inside to
Allen revels in Barcelona, photographing (cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe, "Talk to Her," "The Sea Inside") all the relevant points of interest, paying special attention to the architecture of Antoni Gaudí.
His cinematographer this time is Javier Aguirresarobe, best known for The Others , Talk to Her and The Sea Inside .
Allen appears in perfect concert with the Spanish locations, graciously revealing the beauty of the land through the master shooting of cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (“Talk to Her,” “The Sea Inside”), filling the frame with golden Euro delights.
Plus, the cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe (of Talk to Her and The Sea Inside ) is actually well-thought out and significant, unheard of in a Woody Allen film; looking somewhat like a sun-washed Almodóvar film, the palette is full of colors muted into shades of gold and yellow.
Not every movie about a quadriplegic has to be Javier Bardem in “The Sea Inside” (oddly, like “The Intouchables,” that movie uses the sea as a metaphor for things that are bigger and stronger than our problems).
If Me Before You had the emotional maturity to address physician-assisted suicide like The Sea Inside or a similar film, it would at least be worthy of that discussion even if you disagree with the character’s decision.
This story of the relationship between a quadriplegic man and his caregiver is hardly the unvarnished version — it’s got less in common with “The Sea Inside” than with Julia Roberts’s “Dying Young.”
The versatile Chilean moviemaker collaborated with Mateo Gil (Vanilla Sky) on the screenplay, adapting it from Cartes Desde El Inferno (Letters from Hell), an autobiography by Ramon Sampedro, a quadriplegic whose right-to-die case became a cause célèbre in Spain.
Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar is only on his fourth film, but he already has one of the most enviable careers imaginable: he made a big splash with his first film, the snuff-movie thriller Tesis; his second film Open Your Eyes was an international hit that got remade as Vanilla Sky; his third film was the critical and commercial hit The Others and his fourth picture has just received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.
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While it didn't quite affect me like "My Left Foot," the little seen (but superb) "The Sea Inside" or the somewhat thematically similar "A Beautiful Mind," this is still a strong and moving offering about facing long odds and nonetheless moving forward.
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, The Orphanage stars Belen Rueda (from The Sea Inside) as Laura and Fernando Cayo as Carlos, a young, handsome wife and husband who have purchased a long-shuttered orphanage to turn into a home for disabled kids.
Rueda, a down-to-earth beauty, won Spain's equivalent of the Oscar as the lawyer fighting for a paralyzed Javier Bardem's right to die in "The Sea Inside."
Belén Rueda (The Sea Inside) plays Laura, a woman returning to the seaside orphanage she left some 30 years earlier, with plans to reopen the abandoned building as a home for disabled children in partnership with her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo).
Laura (Belén Rueda, from "The Sea Inside") plays a fiercely devoted mother, raised in the institution of the title, who returns to the decrepit building with her husband and son.
Rueda had a supporting role in "The Sea Inside," but until now she's been foremost a TV star in Spain.
The strongest appeal of the film is the brooding, intense performance by Spanish actress, Belen Rueda ( The Sea Inside), as a 37-year-old woman, Laura, who returns to Spain's seaside to buy the orphanage where she spent her childhood.