The subjects of euthanasia and the "right to die" have taken a back seat to sexier controversies in recent years, but it
wasn't very long ago that Dr. Kevorkian was on the news every night and Ramon Sampedro was petitioning the Spanish government for the right to end his own life as he saw fit. "The Sea Inside," which tells of Sampedro's struggle, is probably the most uplifting, life-affirming film about suicide ever made. It makes you grateful to be alive even as you sympathize with Ramon's struggle. He's such a wonderful, honest man that you really hope he dies at the end. Directed and co-written by Alejandro Amenabar ( "The Others" ), "The Sea Inside" stars Javier Bardem as Ramon, who at the film's beginning has been paralyzed from the neck down for 26 years. He became quadriplegic in a diving accident and has since been cared for primarily by his sister-in-law Manuela (Mabel Rivera). He lives in an upstairs room in the home of Manuela and her husband, Ramon's brother Jose (Celsa Bugallo), and does not often leave it. He despises the wheelchair. He has a poet's soul and is deeply sensitive, yet he has allowed himself to become bitter over his situation. He has no dignity in the current arrangement, no zest for life. He wants to die.
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