The Sea Inside

I don't think this film adds anything new to the debate about so-called "death with dignity" or the right to end your own life. But it is a tender and nuanced treatment of the subject that raises the major questions and includes the major stakeholders—the legal system, a religious priest who is caricatured as moralistic and uncaring, friends, and a three-generation family that lives with and cares for the quadriplegic Ramon, who after a diving accident 26 years ago wants to end his life since, he insists, it is a life with no dignity. Ramon's brother adamantly objects: "nobody kills anyone in my house." Others are not so sure. Four women in particular loom large in the film's plot. I will not spoil Ramon's final choice, which to the film's credit is not clear until the very end. The Sea Inside is based upon a true story in Spain, and was voted Best Foreign Film for 2004. In Spanish with English subtitles.