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23
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34
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60
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46
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78
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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42
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28
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63
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86
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30
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53
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83
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33
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45
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96
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35
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28
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88
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71
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67
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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96
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86
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70
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45
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74
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80
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28
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50
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58
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72
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89
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52
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64
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
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74
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94
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29
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16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
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83
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61
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42
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70
It Might Get Loud
46
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19
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41
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66
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34
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80
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83
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xx
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59
More Than a Game
67
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34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
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48
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73
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66
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34
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xx
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54
Paper Heart
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68
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68
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44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
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65
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76
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69
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79
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40
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77
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xx
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89
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55
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61
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83
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66
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66
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67
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69
We Live in Public
64
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64
Where is Where?
xx
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74
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69
World's Greatest Dad
70
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69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Sea Inside, The

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 38 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 44 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Alejandro Amenábar
Mateo Gil
Directed by: Alejandro Amenábar
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 17, 2004
DVD: May 17, 2005
Running Time: 125 minutes, Color
Origin: Spain / France / Italy
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Others
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The Sea Inside brings us outside and inside ourselves, and takes us to brave new aesthetic depths.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
The result is a film both poetic and profound.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Bardem's performance is a marvel of restraint and control, both physical and emotional.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The Sea Inside is uplifting. This is a movie that may cause viewers to both laugh and cry.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The film is a melancholy but poetic meditation on the fragility of the gift of life.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Ken Tucker
Operates as stealth art: stately, moving, beautifully acted, and urgently subversive to our own status quo.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Wrings honest emotion and riveting dramatics from its tale.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The film, quite rightly, is a tour de force for Bardem.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren
This movie might make you cry, but it is not explicitly designed to do so.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
For the most part, the film stays steady-on, celebrating one man's crusade - and one family's heartbreak.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
If the movie is largely familiar, its passion and craft are noteworthy.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Nelson Pressley
Placid and rather attractive on the surface, with depths you can sense but which are never fully plumbed.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
I remained strangely dry-eyed up to the final shot.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 44 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Liz B. gave it a10:
Brilliant and subtle; so many layers of meaning for multiple watchings; profound.
Barna gave it a10:
A very moving story, perfectly crafted from all angles.
Gail J. gave it a9:
I always like Javier Bardem but this movie made me a real fan. What I loved about him was how lovable and sexy he was even though he was bed-ridden.
Stephen gave it a10:
How can someone this young (Amenabar is still under 40) make a film this good?
Jeanne B. gave it a9:
A poignant story that touches the heart and mind. The movies gets us to question our feelings about life and our own inevitable death. The acting is sincere, natural and real. Even if you don't agree with Ramon's choice, you can empathize with his plight.
John F. gave it a10:
I speak Spanish and found this film extremely moving and beautiful in its original language. I heard about Sampedro inthe SpanishLanguage Audio Magazine Puerta del Sol, Volume X, 1 several years ago. One of the greatest movies I have ever seen!
Diego A. gave it a10:
A fantastic story. It is perfectly acted and beautifully directed, it was wonderfull how they make the audience feel the sadness and nostalgia of the character.
