Mar Adentro

Mar Adentro (English title, The Sea Inside) won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year in 2005, which I have to say it very much deserved. The film challenges a, in some countries, still problematic subject matter, but manages to do so without judging. Though Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) wants to die, he is willing to confront people who disagree with him and who don't feel a person should ask of someone to take his life by assisting him in commiting suicide. At one moment he even starts to wonder why it is he wants to die and maybe even wants to stay alive for there are still many pleasures in life he can really appreciate. Mar Adentro thus gives different perspectives on the subject of euthanasia and shows the difficulties. Javier Bardem gives a very strong and touching performance. He has a set of great expressive eyes which make him a joy to watch. Belén Rueda perfectly supports him as Rosa the advocate who is willing to help Ramón and bring his case to court. However, a character that I could not find sympathy for was the character of Rosa (Lola Dueñas) who to me never was appealing and never evolved into becoming a likeable character. This of course doesn't always have to happen, but I just could not see what Ramón saw in a woman so naïve and so unwilling at first to help him out, though always going back to visit him what seemed to be more for her own comfort, and thus more for her own interest than for that of Ramón's. But this aside, Mar Adentro is a wonderful film about death, which also manages to celebrate the beauty of life as Ramón never stopped loving life, which is probably why it was so hard for him to continue living, knowing he could never enjoy the life he so much loved the way he used to.

Verdict: Beautiful film about death, but which also celebrates the beauty of life. With very touching performances from Javier Bardem and Belén Rueda. It's a nice drama which really makes you think about the difficulties of euthanasia and provides you with different perspective without ever giving you the feeling that it wants to force its opinion on you.