Ramon wants to die, but is physically unable to commit suicide. He lives with his family, which consists of his elderly father (Joan Dalmau), Ramon's grumpy older brother José (Celso Bugallo), José's careworn wife Manuela (Mabel Rivera), and José's earnest young adult son Javier (Tamar Novas).
Manuela enjoys nursing Ramon, and José and Javier are eager to help Ramon pursue his writing activities. Nonetheless, Ramon pursues legal permission to commit suicide (e.g. euthanasia) with cute activist Gené (Clara Segura), her lawyer husband Marc (Francesc Garrido), and attractive chain-smoking lawyer Julia (Belén Rueda). Julia, as it turns out, has a debilitating and incurable illness of her own.
Factory worker Rosa (Lola Dueñas) learns of Ramon's sad situation on television and tries to befriend him, despite determined resistance by Manuela (for good reason, as it turns out). The somewhat pathetic Rosa is infatuated with Ramon, but he is determined not to take advantage of her. Until he does.
How others will see it. Director Amenábar's The Others was a very good film. This, combined with his third world origins and a moving "message" theme about the right to die, set up Amenábar for a wave of praise for The Sea Inside. Sure enough, the Goya Awards, the Spanish counterpart to the Oscars, lavished 14 wins on the project, and it also won Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Though hardly a box office smash, even in Spain, the 50K user votes at imdb.com insure lasting video success. The user ratings are also extremely high at 8.0, with consistent scores across all demographics except for women under age 18.
Some who object to the film do so for the wrong reason, its advocacy for the right to die. Though most would agree it is the wrong decision to make most (and perhaps nearly all) of the time. Still, one should not criticize a film merely because of an unpleasant belief held by its lead character. How the supporting characters react to this belief is a different matter.
How I felt about it. I did not like this movie. I'm not assailing any of the performances, especially that of its star, Javier Bardem. I also will not argue with the obsession of Ramon to die, since some people without the curse of a crippling handicap want to off themselves, for no obvious reason. Some 37 years later, I am still mystified by the suicide of young Freddie Prinze during the run of his hit comedy series. About one year later, Terry Kath, a lead singer of Chicago, also shot himself, near the peak of his band's popularity.
But Ramon the person is not Ramon the character. It is harder to believe that someone tended to by four caring family members, and someone with no less than three attractive women (Julia, Rosa, Gené) fawning over him, would be so selfish and rude as the character in this film is, in his determination to die. Plus, he is removing his pension from the family income.
The character of Julia, introduced at the start of the film and shown at the end, is added to the story to confirm the validity of Ramon's decision: see what can happen to you if you don't take your life? Yet she is at peace with her decision, and so is her husband. Also, she won't get anyone arrested for an insistence in making friends commit felonies for her own dubious benefit.
An opposing view, held by fellow quadriplegic Father Francisco, is that the right to life or death is held solely by God. There are clear benefits to such a position. If it is followed, there are no murders, suicides, wars, terrorist acts, or executions. It is hard to argue against Father Francisco, even if his views are unenforceable. Certainly, there is no need to make his character into such a jerk, and throw in a scene where Manuela tells him off.
I have to add that it is extremely unlikely that Javier is the best looking young man in Spain yet has no interests outside of his home aside from the occasional televised soccer game.