The Sea Inside

Javier Bardem didn’t get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 2004, and that’s just silly. His work as a paraplegic fighting for the right to die is the sort of performance that deserved the highest of praises, but went strangely undetected (the film itself won the Best Foreign Film Oscar). Bardem portrays real-life figure Ramón Sampedro as a relatively happy, at-peace man who simply wants to end his life in a dignified manner. The fact that Sampedro is always smiling and full of life from the neck up makes his struggle to die even harder to take. Director Alejandro Amenábar and crew have made a picture that is shot beautifully, especially evident in the moments where Sampedro fantasizes about flying from his window to a neighboring sea. This is one of the more moving pictures of 2004, and further evidence that Bardem is one of the great actors working in cinema today.