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|
Sea Inside, The
Fine Line Features
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense depiction of mature thematic material
Starring
Javier Bardem,
Belén Rueda,
Lola Dueñas,
Mabel Rivera,
Celso Bugallo,
Clara Segura,
Joan Dalmau,
and
Alberto Jiménez
Based on the profoundly moving true story that captured the world's attention, The Sea Inside is about Spaniard Ramon Sampedro (Bardem), who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. The film is the story of Ramon's relationships with two women: Julia (Rueda), a lawyer who supports his cause, and Rosa (Duenas), a local woman who wants to convince him that life is worth living. (Fine Line Features)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Alejandro Amenábar
Mateo Gil
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Alejandro Amenábar
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 17, 2005
Theatrical: December 17, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
125 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Spain / France / Italy |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Spanish / Catalan / Galician (with English subtitles) |
Received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2004. Named Best Foreign Language Film, 2004 National Board of Review; Nominated, Best Foreign Film, 2005 Independent Spirit Awards. Original title "Mar Adentro."

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Variety
Jonathan Holland
A dramatic triumph.

100
Premiere
Kevin Allison
In the way that water can heal and harm, this film balances moments of dreamy spirituality with the salty harshness of family disputes.

100
USA Today
Claudia Puig
A monumentally moving experience, from the powerful acting by Javier Bardem to the evocative music, composed by the director, Alejandro Amenábar.

100
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Based on a true story, the movie has abundant humor and uplift - but it's a heartbreaker of extraordinary dimension.

100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The Sea Inside brings us outside and inside ourselves, and takes us to brave new aesthetic depths.

90
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
What makes The Sea Inside such a riveting drama is that none of these relationships is sufficient to make Ramón want to go on living.

90
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
The result is a film both poetic and profound.

90
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
Bardem's performance is a marvel of restraint and control, both physical and emotional.

88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The Sea Inside is uplifting. This is a movie that may cause viewers to both laugh and cry.

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
The film is a melancholy but poetic meditation on the fragility of the gift of life.

80
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
A flawed film worth seeing.

80
Empire
Kim Newman
The more intimate scenes are almost unbearably poignant.

80
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
Rare is the motion picture which grapples with issues this provocative and profound. Rarer still is one which does so this well.

80
Slate
David Edelstein
As for Bardem: How can I do him justice? He is normally the most robustly physical of actors, with a plummy voice and an insolent sensuality. To see him immobile, ashen, his hair gone, de-bodyized: It's agonizing.

80
New York Magazine
Ken Tucker
Operates as stealth art: stately, moving, beautifully acted, and urgently subversive to our own status quo.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Has its share of contrivances, some more successful than others, but center stage is occupied by truth, and austere beauty.
80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
A film about freedom as well as death, this won't suit every taste, but it rewards close attention and has moments of saving humor.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Bardem is brilliant.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Wrings honest emotion and riveting dramatics from its tale.

75
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
The classy production, with its aesthetic graces, is especially convincing about the charisma of the man, a performance specialty of the great Bardem.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The film, quite rightly, is a tour de force for Bardem.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Leah McLaren
This movie might make you cry, but it is not explicitly designed to do so.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
It's moving, romantic, dreamlike, flawlessly acted and so engaging as to make you forget about euthanasia before it jolts you back into recognition.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is simply the story of one man. Yes, and on those terms I accept it, and was moved by the humanity and logic of the character.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
For the most part, the film stays steady-on, celebrating one man's crusade - and one family's heartbreak.

75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Fortunately, Bardem, who earned an Oscar nomination for his role in Julian Schnabel's "Before Night Falls," makes up for the script's shortcomings.

70
TV Guide
Ethan Alter
The result isn't an easy film, but it is rewarding.

70
Newsweek
David Ansen
It's a testament to his (Amenabar's) cinematic flair that he has taken as daunting a subject as euthanasia and turned it into a crowd-pleasing movie. It's also an indication of what feels wrong here. I can't deny that I was moved, but it all goes down a bit TOO easy.

70
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
There's a combination of fatalism and hard-edged humor at work in The Sea Inside that you can imagine Irish writers would feel right at home with.

70
Village Voice
Laura Sinagra
Unfortunately, Bardem is confined by more than Ramón's paralysis. He also must work within the limits of a partially numbed script.

67
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
If the movie is largely familiar, its passion and craft are noteworthy.

67
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Understandably, a filmmaker tackling the retelling of a national hero must do so with great delicacy, but The Sea Inside presents not so much a hero as a saint in Sampredo.

63
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Bardem gives such a brilliant performance in The Sea Inside, it's a crime that the film itself drowns in tears.

60
Washington Post
Nelson Pressley
Placid and rather attractive on the surface, with depths you can sense but which are never fully plumbed.

50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
You want the movie to stir your soul, push your intellect, or at the very least, break your heart. But it's such a repetitive and thinly constructed piece of filmmaking that the scope and complexity of Sampedro's case are turned to porridge.

50
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
The film fails to convey the claustrophobic terror experienced by a man who called his book "Letters From Hell."

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
When pinned mostly in the man's bedroom, Amenábar's flashier instincts are stifled by a bolted camera and a procession of issue-of-the-week clichés.

40
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
I remained strangely dry-eyed up to the final shot.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 44 User Votes
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