A Sea Inside (2004) (AKA Mar adentro)
Spoilers!
Javier Bardem is one of the most
personable, charming, likeable and warm actors to
work in films today. And maybe that's why he's both
the most perfect, and by the same extension, the most
frustrating person to play Ramon Sampedro, the real
life protagonist of "A Sea Inside."
Sampedro is a quadriplegic, a bed-ridden
man unable to move his limbs who lost his powers of
mobility in a diving accident some 28 years before
the story here begins. Unable to care for himself,
obviously, and in need of constant attention by his
family, Sampedro claims that he wants to commit suicide
and would, if only he were able to physically do it.
Therein lies the frustrating irony of his existence,
if he could move, he would not want to commit suicide
but since he can't, he would like to, but is physically
unable. It is an unenviable quandary.
Sampedro enlists the aid of lawyer's
and suicide rights groups to help him fight the political
and religious bureaucracies that allow such an irony
to exist. His plight receives national attention through
the media in his home country of Spain and his case
becomes a spotlight for pro- euthanasia groups across
the country.
But the true irony of Sampedro's
existence is his overwhelming joy, love, passion and
verve that he truly embodies. We love this guy as
does anyone who comes into contract with him. A young
woman, a local DJ, who hears of his plight visits
him and eventually becomes his friend and brings her
young children to his home. Her life becomes focused
and happy due to their friendship. This women as well
as the female lawyer who takes his case, she herself
the victim of a debilitating disease, a young woman
who is an activist for euthanasia, and Sampedro's
family all become much more alive and blest because
of his existence. His family; his father, his brother,
his brother's wife and son, all live with the quadriplegic
man and care for him. Each one finds more reason for
living with Sampedro around and their love and literal
need for him to be around is evidenced time and time
again throughout the film. Another irony ensues: Does
a person who commits suicide have a right to deny
others his life, especially when their life is so
firmly entrenched in the one who commits the act?
Is there a responsibility to go on living for the
sake of others even when oneself has decided to end
existence?
And thus, Sampedro's plight becomes
quite confusing and complicated. Do we truly believe
that everyone has a right to commit suicide? Does
anyone truly have the right to deny that solution
to anyone else? We can outlaw it and morally object
to it, but the fact remains that people do it every
day. Those who try and fail are rarely, if ever, prosecuted
for the attempt though it remains illegal virtually
everywhere in every country on the planet. Is a person
exempt from this personal choice simply because he
is not physically capable of committing the act? There
is no easy answer to this question and "A Sea Inside"
seems to provide none either.
We watch Sampedro's struggle for
this "right." We even see him question his own conviction
in emotional scenes that are devastating to witness.
We see the toll his plight takes on his friends and
family. His father, his brother, his sister- in-law,
and, in particular, his teenaged nephew, are all the
lesser for Sampedro's desire to kill himself. He is
an integral and desired addition to their family,
even though each has selflessly given up much to care
for their family member. And their loss at his death
is monumental. For Sampedro eventually does find a
way to commit the act.
What is most troubling is the way
in which he undergoes that act. Through several friends,
he obtains the poison, has someone else mix it, has
someone else put it in a glass and another place it
next to him with a straw. There is no doubt that the
act of suicide is his own choice. He defiantly moves
his head, without the aid of another, to the straw
and drinks all of the poison. There is no doubt that
he commits suicide. There is no doubt that it is totally
his choice and his own actions that cause his demise.
But the question remains, should
he have been aided by his friends? If you put a gun
in the hands of a man who says he wants to shoot himself
fatally in the head, and then he does so, are you
guilty of murder? Are you guilty of anything? When
it comes to death and suicide, where do our rights
and obligations as friends and as members of society
begin and end? What is right and wrong?
And there is more here. Sampedro's
lawyer is herself crippled by a disease. But she is
afflicted mentally much more than physically and although
she says she wants to, she does not commit suicide
while she is still mentally capable of enacting to
such a process. Is she a lesser person because she
does not? Should she not exist anymore because she
is mentally incapable of asking for suicide by the
end of the film although she professed a desire for
it when mentally fit?
Like abortion and the death penalty,
euthanasia is a subject with myriad emotions and ideas
attached to it. What one person believes will vary
from what the next may feel and perhaps neither is
right or wrong. One wonders if it is right for anyone
to decide the matter for anyone else. Here, we question
if anyone has the right to commit the act at all,
considering the fact that more than just the one is
affected.
The truly troubling nature of "A
Sea Inside" is that there are people in this world,
people with families and with people who need them,
people who seem to have everything needed to survive,
with perhaps the exception of one element, as in this
case normal mobility, who wish to die, who want to
kill themselves. It is a troubling notion and one
that is not easily dismissed or easily solved. In
this film, we sometimes see suicide for the selfish
act that it is, yet, at the same time, we struggle
to decide if it wrong and selfish to deny such an
option to a person.
I was often quite depressed as a
teenager. I sometimes thought of suicide and I wonder
if it had been as simple as traveling to the drugstore
and purchasing a pill that killed you easily if I
would have made that trip. I wonder if someone had
placed a cup of poison next to me if I would have
taken that sip. Could I have possibly been that selfish?
Notes:
In Spanish, Catalan and Galician
with subtitles.
Alejandro Amenabar who directed
here also co-wrote, co- produced edited and scored
the film.
The film has been nominated for
and won several awards. It is nominated for two Golden
Globes (Best Foreign Film, Best Actor), an Independent
Spirit Award (Best Foreign Film) and is Spain's choice
for their film to be considered for an Academy Award.
Released in Spain in September 2004,
the film began an American arthouse run in December
2004.
Viewed at a press sneak at The Dobie
in December 2004.
