The Sea Inside

Last week's movie was The Sea Inside with Javier Bardem and Beulen Rueda. I've been thinking about this movie since I saw it-I really liked it but ...well, I'll get to that. Javier Bardem is almost unrecognizable playing a man a good 20 years older (or more) than his real age, and after a sailing accident, has been a quadriplegic for 28 years and wants to die. You can't really say this movie is a "triumph of the spirit", not like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly-not when the main character wants so much to die. But it is a triumph in what his spirit inspires in others, particularly in the two women who care so much for him-one a lawyer and writer who wants to tell his story, and the other a cannery worker, abused by her ex who learns to be strong and face her life without fear-and they both fall in love with him. Everyone gives great performances-and I commend Javier Bardem for a strong performance that didn't annoy me-it's easy to overdo the histrionics when you're playing a quadriplegic and his performance was admirably restrained. Beulen Rueda (who later went on to The Orphanage, a great movie) was also very good, as was Lola Duenas as Rosa, the local cannery worker.

But here's the thing, I spent the who movie thinking "Javier Bardem's head looks as big as a pumpkin". Just when I'd be getting into it and not really thinking about the movie, just being caught up in it, they'd show him again, and I'd think "his head is HUGE". It took me right out of it, which was disappointing when it was so beautiful-the photography and the way it was shot was amazing. The scenes when Bardem seems to shake off paralysis and go flying over the landscape were stunning-so I didn't like thinking "man, look at the size his head" when they cut back to him-but I invariably found that was the case. And what was the neurological disease that afflicted Beulen Rueda? First she's using a cane, then she's in a wheelchair, but both times she's able to discuss the case (he actually has to go to court to win the right to die and not have the people who help him be prosecuted) and the book she's writing, but at the end, she's in the wheelchair and she doesn't remember him or anybody else. What is that? It is possible that she said what she had and I missed it in the subtitles because I was looking at the size of Javier Bardem's head, but don't mind me-it was still a very good movie.