2004 Top 10 - #5
December 26, 2004#5: Sea Inside, The : The most mature and emotionally wrenching film to-date from Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes, The Others), The Sea Inside represents a cathartic and satisfying experience. Based on a true story, this film chronicles the last years in the life of Ramon Sampedro, a Spaniard who has been a quadraplegic for nearly three decades and is seeking court permission to end his "life without dignity." The Sea Inside does not ask you to take Ramon's position, but to understand it, and the circumstances that have brought him to this point. It poses two key questions: (1) Does a person have the right to control his own body where death is concerned? and (2) Does it require greater love to help someone like Ramon take his own life, or to give him unconditional support for as long as he lives? For a movie about euthenasia, The Sea Inside has moments that are surprisingly uplifting. While watching this film, it is possible to laugh one moment and cry the next. Someone I know called The Sea Inside one of the best pictures he has seen in the last five years. That may be hyperbole, but I understand where he's coming from. The Sea Inside is certainly one of the best of 2004.
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Theatrical Releases
This is the weekend of Iron Man. Anything else is pretty much inconsequential. This opening has been awaited for a long time by a wide variety of people. Web publishers who operate movie-related sites have been holding out for May 2 because ...
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Christmas in Blockbusterland
"Having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true. " - Spock, "Amok Time"When I was a kid, my favorite day of the year was December 24. Not Christmas Day, but the day before. For me, that was the ...
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Toronto Film Festival Update #5
An interesting synergy exists between Judd Apatow and Kevin Smith. With films like Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy, Smith opened a door that, only about 10 years later, Apatow walked through. Now, with Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Smith has fully ...
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