Factual story of a Spanish quadriplegic who, after twenty-some years of paralysis, took his fight to the courts for the right to die. Given its intrinsic limitations, the film is well directed (by Alejandro Amenábar), well photographed (by Javier Aguirresarobe, who collaborated with this director on The Others), and well acted (by Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, Mabel Rivera, Clara Segura). The protagonist, acting as a spokesman for the artist rather than for euthanasians, says a good thing: "Who said anything about quadriplegics? I'm talking about me!" And his relationships with, primarily, four very different women are sharply defined: the empathetic lawyer who herself suffers from a degenerative disease (and with whom our hero explores the boundaries of untactile sexuality), the simple factory worker who insinuates herself at first as a pro-life advocate, the pregnant representative from Death With Dignity, and the silently devoted sister-in-law who, together with a moody nephew, cares for the invalid round the clock. And the out-and-out debate of the issue with a quadriplegic priest is cleverly staged: the priest's wheelchair won't fit up the staircase, and our hero won't come down, so a messenger must shuttle upstairs and down with the points and counterpoints, until the debate degenerates into a shouting match, with no more need of an intermediary. There are further attempts to cinematize the material through flashback and fantasy. Still, for all its valiant struggle, the film is almost as confined as its protagonist: not so much by restriction of movement as by narrowness of scope. (2004) — Duncan Shepherd
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