The Left Atrium

Film review Spheres of influence

read his book Letters from Hell. has to get to know him. She is given a The sea inside (Mar adentro) Sampedro even arranged to have his box of photographs that the filmmaker Directed by Alejandro Amenábar Sogecine, 2004, 125 min own death videotaped, right down to uses to take the audience back to when Screenplay by Alejandro Amenábar and the last agonizing cyanide-induced Sampedro, as a young man afflicted by Mateo Gill spasm, to prove to the authorities that wanderlust, decided to join the mer- Starring Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda and others should not suffer the way he did. chant marine. The sea and travelling Lola Dueñas Amenábar held extensive interviews were his passion. The photos reveal his Rory O’Shea Was Here and obtained script approvals from larger-than-life appetite for love and Directed by Damien O’Donnell Sampedro’s close friends and the fam- adventure. Through Julia’s probings, Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine ily members who took care of him for Sampedro flashes back to the moment Focus Features, 2004, 105 min almost three decades. where, mentally preoccupied, he dives Starring Steven Robertson, James McAvoy The movie begins and ends with the off a cliff into water made shallow by a and Ramola Garai theme of the metamorphic sea, giving retreating undertow — a phenomenon life and claiming it back. Sampedro is familiar to any sailor. As he hits bottom in the 28th year of his fight for the right his neck snaps; images from his life lthough The Sea Inside and to die with dignity and is about to meet flood his consciousness. He is rescued Rory O’Shea Was Here both Julia, a lawyer who has agreed to plead in the nick of time but is paralyzed A portray seriously disabled his case. Julia is an amalgam of the sev- from the neck down. He later says, “I people coping with overwhelming limitations, the issues these films raise resonate beyond quotidian strug- These films also challenge societal gles. The Sea Inside is based on the life of Ramon Sampedro, who was rendered quadriplegic in a diving acci- conventions about who should dent and became a vocal advocate for the legalization of assisted suicide. control critical decisions in disabled Rory O’Shea is a fictional teenager born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who refuses to let his disorder people’s lives. slow him down. Like other biopics (My Left Foot, 1989) and documen- taries (The Sue Rodriguez Story, eral women Sampedro knew through- should have died right then and there.” 1998), these well-crafted stories in- out his life as a quadriplegic. Later in This is the crux of the movie: for spire reflection on the value of life and the movie we learn that Sampedro had Sampedro, life is not worth living if he of a dignified death, whether we are specified that the lawyer defending him cannot enjoy it to the fullest, and the disabled or not. should have a degenerative disease in mental torture of unfulfilled dreams is

2 Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, order to truly understand the nature of worse than any physical handicap. 6 9

0 The Sea Inside is neither documentary his suffering and why he wants to The other main female protagonist 5 0 . j

a nor fiction but a dramatization con- choose death over life. Even bedridden is Rosa, a character inspired by the m c

/ structed in a way faithful to Sampedro’s he is disarmingly charming, witty and woman who was Sampedro’s constant 3 0 5

1 philosophy of life. The director was in- humorous, but he is also single- companion and assisted in his suicide. . 0 1

: spired to write the story after he saw a minded in his purpose. Rosa’s own life is a mess. She has two I O

D documentary about Sampedro and To better represent Sampedro, Julia children by different fathers and works

in a dead-end job in a canning factory. Rory’s talent for mischief, which in- mates the film. Sampedro and Rory ask She sees Sampedro making his plea on cludes provoking and insulting others, the audiences not to prejudge them. television and cannot understand why makes him appear self-centred, uncar- They also challenge societal conven- such a charming man would seek to ing and rebellious, shattering the tions about who should control critical end his life. She decides that he only stereotype of the “well-mannered crip- decisions in disabled people’s lives. needs to be loved so that he can find the ple.” But Rory’s days are numbered by In the last scene of The Sea Inside courage to fight on. Sampedro quickly his disease, the grim prognosis of Julia is in a wheelchair, alive but de- cuts to the chase and tells Rosa she is which he never bothered to mention to mented; she suffers from a degenera- there to make herself feel better. This is Michael. In the short time he spends tive disease resulting in multiple the other lesson of the movie: through with Rory, Michael tastes excitement strokes. She had wanted to end her life his suffering, Sampedro paradoxically and adventure but also disappointment when conscious of how the disease makes everyone around him feel more and grief that he could never encounter would ravage her mind but was per- alive. While everyone pleads with inside the walls of the institution. The suaded to go on living by her dutiful Sampedro, he simply asks “Don’t judge movie ends with Michael dissolving husband. me, I don’t tell you how to live your life, into the crowd; an anonymous but don’t tell me how I should feel or what I whole person. Normand Carrey should do.” There are echoes here of ar- In Rory O’Shea, as in The Sea Psychiatrist guments made by Sue Rodriguez. Inside, the issue of quality of life ani- Halifax, NS In Rory O’Shea Was Here, Rory and Michael are two severely impaired young men who meet at an institution for people with disabilities. Rory has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and an Notes acid wit. Michael has severe cerebral palsy, but underneath his garbled Psychiatry is hard speech lies an intelligent and sensitive soul. Rory has a caring father and has Psychiatry is hard. My patients aren’t getting better. Actually, I think they’re already lived a mischief-filled life. getting worse. The psychotic hears so many voices, I bet he thinks he’s at the Michael as a young boy was abandoned UN. The bulimic is spending half the day in the bathroom. The manic hasn’t to the institution by his rich father after slept for days and is currently wailing out Bridge Over Troubled Water in a his mother died. They become good pressured frenzy at the nurses’ desk. companions as Rory challenges I can’t convince them of anything. Not a thing. Not that voices don’t usu- Michael about his sheltered life: “Have ally come out of thin air. Not that food is neither control nor shame. Not that you ever been laid, have you ever gotten sitting quietly once in a while might be a good idea. arrested?” Rory’s dream is to live inde- Not that there is hope. pendently, but he is deemed “irrespon- Today I spoke with the psychotic. sible.” Rory convinces Michael to plead “Sometimes I hear voices.” his own case for independent living. “What do the voices say?” Michael is Rory’s way out. Michael “Well ... they take my stuff, sometimes.” wins his case but needs a so-called in- “How can they do that? They’re only voices.” terpreter, to which role Rory duly ap- “They can assume human form.” points himself. “How do they do that, assume human form?” What is brilliant here is how the two “How else could they take my stuff?” young men complement each other; Well, you can’t argue with that. It’s the worst syllogism I’ve ever heard, and each has a gift that makes the other it opens my eyes. whole. Rory finds out who Michael’s fa- I can’t persuade these people to be healthy. Logic isn’t the drug that will ther is (a rich magistrate) and shames cure them. A cure isn’t even what they need. What they need is help. him into supporting them in a specially Help getting their stuff back from those thieving voices. Help confronting designed apartment. Rory continues to whatever monster is hiding behind the food. Help living life with the volume cause mayhem, but Michael evolves be- set a little below eleven. 8 yond the hidden potential suppressed 9 Help finding some hope. 3 1 by institutional living. They hire the at- 5 And, perhaps, help taking their meds. 0 . j tractive Siobhan as their caretaker; al- a m c / though devoted to the boys, she re- 3 Paul Moorehead 0 5 1 minds them that her caring is . Pediatrics Resident 0 1 : proportional to the wages she earns — I Memorial University of Newfoundland O a realization devastating to the smitten D St. John’s, Nfld. Michael, utterly naive in matters of love.

CMAJ • January 17, 2006 • 174(2) | 210