The Sea Inside

This film was adapted from Ramon Sampedro’s book Letters From Hell.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” —Jeremiah 29:11

God has a way of waking people up; we sometimes get ahead of Him, and He is forced to intervene to get our attention. With non-believers, sometimes He uses the intervention as a wake-up call to change and to turn to Him. People (non-Christians) may be living great lives and have everything going for them, but are brought to their knees when everything falls apart around them. It is in these times that God is begging for their attention, for them to recognize their need for Him. God has plans for their lives and wants to use them greatly, but they first have to notice Him.

God knew that the moment Ramon Sampedro jumped off the rocks into the peaceful sea below he would never walk again, never live life the same way. “The Sea Inside” is Alejandro Amenabar’s (The Others) account of the struggles of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro to die “with dignity.” Ramon (Javier Bardem) was paralyzed in a diving accident. When we meet him, it has been almost 30 years since the accident, and Ramon has spent ever day of those thirty years lying helplessly in bed, at the mercies of his caring family. We learn right away that he has been searching for a lawyer so that he can attempt to be granted legal permission to end his life “with dignity.”

He is a confident man, who exudes genuine charm and warmth from the confines of his bed. Yet, he feels that his life has no dignity, no redemptive value, and wants the right to end it without being viewed in a shameful light by the rest of society. His lawyer is Julia (Belen Rueda), who takes his case for free because, we learn, she may understand his pain more than she lets on. She has an assistant, who ends up doing most of the legal work, while Julia and Ramon form a close relationship, even while Julia’s patient, caring husband waits at home. Another woman comes into Ramon’s life, Rosa (Lola Duenas), who sees Ramon plead his case on television and wants to be his friend, and convince him that life is worth living. She is a rather lonely woman who uses Ramon almost as her service project to somehow redeem her admittedly miserable existence. Ramon tells her that she is no friend of his if she does not respect his right to die.

Ramon comes across as a genuinely nice man, at first, but we learn he is really only that way to those who agree with him. His father and brother want nothing to do with Ramon’s case, because they don’t think he has the right to take his own life. They also seem somewhat exasperated after years of helping Ramon, who to them comes across as ungrateful for all they have done for him. Ramon’s father is the one character in the movie I sympathized with, and he delivers the most touching, heartfelt line of the movie. While the family and lawyers are sitting around the table discussing Ramon’s legal strategies, he says somberly, to no one in particular “You know what is the one thing worse than having your son die on you? Him wanting to.”

“The Sea Inside” is a technical success. Javier Bardem is stunning as Ramon. He spends the majority of the film in bed, and yet his real acting job is done with his eyes and facial expressions. We believe that Ramon is a charming man who could make a woman fall for him, because Bardem makes us believe it. The film is also shot beautifully, with the cameras swooping around the Spanish valleys and hills and water as Ramon flies “in his mind” to the beach, the place he loves.

The musical score is a bit too much, and tends to overemphasize some scenes by blaring its haunting dirge almost nonstop. It is a beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it would have been best suited for scenes of special importance, not every five minutes.

The content of the film is very mild. There is very little language; I can only remember one subtitled “s” word. Sexual content is almost nonexistent, although Ramon does put his hand down Julia’s shirt, saying he is feeling her heartbeat. There is no violence, but there is the disturbing scene, played a couple times, of Ramon diving into the ocean and hitting the sandy floor. The PG-13 rating of this film is mainly due to the subject material, and Christians should be prepared for it before viewing.

I went into the film with an open mind, hoping the film would be more about him, and his life, than about his wish to die. But, the film makes its message very clear early on: people should have the right to do with their lives whatever they want, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to mind their own business. Ramon got very little sympathy from me; his character is maddeningly smug, and seems to go about his business not to die with dignity, but almost to die with more attention.

There are some religious characters in the film, including a quadriplegic priest who tries to convince Ramon that life is worth living. However, they are seen as meddling, narrow-minded conservatives who run their lives on old-fashion mode.

I cannot recommend the film, not necessarily because of the message it delivered, but because of the way it went about doing it.

God had a plan for Ramon’s life, yet Ramon cared little for it. He made it clear he didn’t believe in God or an afterlife, and lived his last thirty years with an almost “woe is me” mindset. I have come across a number of quadriplegics in my life, and all have been Christians. They have exuded such warmth and happiness and love for life and God that I couldn’t help but feel sad for Ramon. He simply didn’t get it.

God has given us a life worth living, a life worth staying alive for. Things may not always go our way, and sometimes God may have to do something drastic to get our attention. But the joys we are in for, once God does finally get our attention, far outweigh the alternative, and we wish people like Ramon would just realize it before it’s too late.

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.