Javier Bardem's understated, yet powerful portrayal of a paralyzed man calms the melodrama in The Sea Inside.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
Published January 20, 2005
[Photo: Fine Line Features]
Rosa (Lola Duenas) visits the paralyzed Ramon (Javier Bardem) in The Sea Inside. Bardem’s character spends most of the movie flat on his back.
It's funny how melodramatic cliches seem so much classier with subtitles. Alejandro Amenabar's film contains plenty: a bravely dying hero, various bedside sympathizers and a grand courtroom showdown between one man and "the system." But The Sea Inside soars beyond pathos into the rarified air of heartbreaking (or at least heart-bending) cinema.
Much of the credit goes to Javier Bardem's towering portrayal of a man who spends most of the movie flat on his back. He plays Ramon Sampedro, a former sailor betrayed by his love of the water when a risky dive breaks his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Sampedro's real-life efforts to violate Spanish law and choose euthanasia is the source of The Sea Inside. Even if the story were fictional, the film - which won the Golden Globe for best foreign language film - would likely be as compelling.
Bardem plays Ramon as a victim, not of his paralysis, but of people denying him the right to choose when his frustrating life should end. Solid cases are made on both sides of the issue: personal freedom vs. responsibilities steeped in religion and supervised by government. Ramon isn't a failure - he's charming, intelligent, a wonderful writer - so this doesn't seem like suicide. Yet Amenabar and co-writer Mateo Gil aren't entirely in his corner. Those urging Ramon to keep living are standing on firm moral ground, or perhaps they simply love him too much to lose him.
This is a ripe role for Bardem, an Oscar nominee for Before Night Falls (2000) and likely a repeater for this performance. In flashbacks, we see what a virile heartthrob he can be. Most of the time, we see him wasted by atrophy, hair thinned to near-baldness, fingers clinched uselessly. The flashbacks make Bardem's immersion into Ramon's condition even more impressive. Bardem underplays the pain, courage and anger to make each factor stronger, more believable.
But this isn't a one-man show. Two women deeply figure into the plot: Belen Rueda as a right-to-die lawyer whose devotion to her client runs deeper than expected and Lola Duenas as a single mother and radio personality who visits Ramon first out of curiosity, then with genuine affection. It's a love triangle of sorts, evidence that tragedy hasn't stolen Ramon's charisma. Not many American films would suggest that, or they would refrain from sentimentality with such assurance that viewers would weep anyway.
Amenabar (The Others, Abre los Ojos) finds alluring ways to "open up" the drama outside Ramon's bedroom: Fantasies of rising, walking to the beach, perhaps kissing a beautiful woman, are lovely, and recollections of the man's diving accident are filmed with chillingly poetic details. The cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe and Amenabar's lilting musical score are among the best of 2004.
The Sea Inside opens Friday at the Tampa Theatre, with more theaters expected to be added in February to maintain interest while the Academy Awards voting process heats up. It's entirely worth the trip, and the wait.
The Sea Inside
Grade: A
Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Belen Rueda, Lola Duenas, Celso Bugallo, Tamar Novas
Screenplay: Alejandro Amenabar, Mateo Gil
Rating: PG-13; profanity, mature themes of euthanasia
