The Sea Inside movie review: One of the year’s biggest hits in Spain and the winner of 14 Goya Awards, Alejandro Amenábar’s capably assembled, generally well-acted, but overly sentimental euthanasia drama traces a tetraplegic man’s fight to end his life. (Pictured: Javier Bardem in The Sea Inside.)- The Sea Inside movie (2004) review: Based on a true story, screenwriter-director Alejandro Amenábar’s slick and at times perilously melodramatic pro-euthanasia tale provides Javier Bardem with a showy star role as a tetraplegic Spaniard fighting for the “right to die” in a country where – like just about everywhere else – assisted suicide is legally akin to murder.
- Javier Bardem sinks his teeth into a role that demanded a more delicate, more nuanced rendering, but his fellow cast members – especially Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, and Mabel Rivera – deliver pitch-perfect performances that help to lift The Sea Inside from the lowly realm of “disease movie of the week.”
The Sea Inside movie review: First-rate supporting cast saves slick + at times dangerously melodramatic ‘right to die’ drama
One of Spain’s biggest box office hits of 2004 and the winner of a record-breaking 14 Goya Awards and the year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Alejandro Amenábar’s The Sea Inside / Mar adentro features Javier Bardem as its centerpiece: In a showy performance, the Oscar-nominated Spanish star of Before Night Falls (2000) plays Ramón Sampedro (1943–1998), a middle-aged tetraplegic man fighting for the right to end his life.
Unfortunately, a showy star turn is exactly what The Sea Inside didn’t need. Compounding matters, the real-life-inspired message movie is also marred by co-screenwriters Amenábar and Mateo Gil’s overly simplified “right to die” narrative and dramatic sequences that come dangerously close to “disease-movie-of-the-week” territory.
On the positive side, The Sea Inside is a skillfully made effort, boasting first-rate production values – e.g., Javier Aguirresarobe’s excellent cinematography. There’s more: The movie’s most crucial plus is its marvelous supporting ensemble – chiefly, Best Actress Goya winner Lola Dueñas, Best Supporting Actress Mabel Rivera, and Best New Actress Belén Rueda.
‘Out to Sea’
In brief, the story revolves around the tetraplegic Sampedro, a former seaman who has been wholly dependent on the care of others following a diving accident in his early 20s. (Hence the film’s original Spanish title, “Out to Sea.”)
Yearning for freedom from his physical prison, he hires an attorney to help him win the right to have someone else – legally – help him to kill himself. The Spanish government, however, is none too willing to sanction euthanasia.
Belén Rueda plays the supportive attorney, a youngish woman suffering from a degenerative disease; Mabel Rivera is Sampedro’s stern but passionately devoted sister-in-law; and Lola Dueñas is a woman whose initial aim is to convince Sampedro to embrace life as is.
Javier Bardem looks the part – but…
Curiously, Javier Bardem’s performance in The Sea Inside was bypassed at the Academy Awards, where the Best Actress winner was another performer portraying a tetraplegic fighting for the right to die: Hilary Swank, in Clint Eastwood’s more widely acclaimed (in the U.S., that is) but less compelling melodrama Million Dollar Baby.
For whatever reason, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Actors Branch got it right this time around. Bardem didn’t merit an Oscar nomination.
Admittedly, the Goya, European Film Award, and Venice Film Festival Best Actor winner looks just right as Sampedro. But that has nothing to do with Bardem and everything to do with Jo Allen and Manolo García’s Goya-winning and Oscar-nominated make-up job.
As has often happened in Bardem’s other movies – the aforementioned Before Night Falls; Pedro Almodóvar’s Live Flesh, in which he plays a partially paralyzed ex-cop; etc. – his The Sea Inside performance frequently calls attention to itself in a manner that detracts from the character. So much so, that Sampedro’s final scene – the very dramatic climax of The Sea Inside – comes across as a half-hearted parody.
Focus on the supporting cast
Alejandro Amenábar should have restrained his lead actor, but the director opted to milk the story’s inherent drama as much as he could. Indeed, he’s the composer of his film’s at times overbearing score.
But again, if you find Javier Bardem’s work and/or Amenábar’s score distracting, keep your focus on the performers circling around the star. Do that and – regardless of your views on euthanasia – The Sea Inside will be well worth your while.
The Sea Inside / Mar adentro (2004)
Director: Alejandro Amenábar.
Screenplay: Alejandro Amenábar & Mateo Gil.
Cast: Javier Bardem. Lola Dueñas. Belén Rueda. Mabel Rivera. Celso Bugallo. Joan Dalmau. Tamar Novas. Clara Segura. Alberto Jiménez. Francesc Garrido. Josep Maria Pou. Alberto Amarilla. Andrea Occhipinti. Marta Larralde.
Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe. Film Editing: Alejandro Amenábar. Music: Alejandro Amenábar. Production Design: Benjamín Fernández. Producers: Alejandro Amenábar & Fernando Bovaira.
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The Sea Inside movie cast and crew info via the IMDb and other sources.
Javier Bardem The Sea Inside movie image: Sogepaq.
“The Sea Inside Movie (2004) Review: Top-Notch Supporting Cast Rescues Pro-Euthanasia Drama” last updated in March 2021.