The Sea Inside Details

The controversial and emotive subject of euthanasia presents film-makers with ample opportunities to pile on the melodrama and manipulate the audience. Fortunately, Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others) manages to keep this true-story drama funny and free of sentiment, while never sacrificing emotional integrity. Quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem in another amazing performance) became famous in 1990s Spain for waging a one-man war against religious leaders, family members and the authorities for the right to die with dignity. It's clear where Amenábar's sympathies lie, but he presents both sides of the complex argument and his heartfelt human drama is all the better for this balanced view, which offers no easy answers. He also opens up the film with astonishingly graceful visualisations of the bedridden Sampedro's voyages of the imagination. The Sea Inside is enormously touching and relevant, celebrating life even as it portrays a struggle for death.

Based on a true story, the movie too often skirts around its subject-matter, a plea for euthanasia from its embittered protagonist, relying on a virtuoso performance from Javier Bardem to convey a vigorous sense of a life worth living.