GeriLaw | Robert Fleming, Tucson elder law attorney, and colleagues

"The Sea Inside" (2004)

Wow.

I don't know how I managed to miss this incredible movie when it was first released. Somehow it managed to catch my (limited) attention recently, and tonight I actually watched it. Wow.

No matter how you feel about the "death with dignity" movement, or assisted suicide, I think you will be moved by the story of Ramón Sampedro. Rendered a quadraplegic by a diving accident 26 years ago, at the beginning of the movie he is trying to persuade Spanish legal authorities that he should be allowed to end his own life. Since he is unable to move or control any part of his body below his neck, he is going to need assistance from someone if he is to take that final step.

Here's the "wow" part: the movie is clearly about Ramón's wishes and his legal struggle, but it is also about love, life, birth, redemption, family and faith. Though it is sympathetic to Ramón's cause, the movie also recognizes the complexity and moral, legal and ethical difficulties of his position. His older brother, for example, is movingly portrayed in his opposition to Ramón's quest, both because he views it as morally wrong and because he does not want to lose Ramón.

Finely-drawn, believable and well-acted characters abound, and subplots move the main storyline forward with richness but without distraction. Ramón's odyssey is in no way linear. As portrayed by Spanish actor Javier Bardem, Ramón never wavers from his goal -- but he clearly understands the toll it will take on his loving (and mostly supportive) family.

The movie is Spanish, and it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (where was I that I didn't notice?). The story is largely true, and based on the real Ramón Sampedro's life and death. Rent it. Watch it. Tell me what you think, please.

Robert B. Fleming
Fleming & Curti, PLC
Tucson, Arizona

The best film on aging?

It's not a category in the Academy Awards. For those of us who spend most of our waking hours dealing with issues surrounding the aging process, it might not even seem like the most attractive way to spend our leisure time. But I'm curious: what is the "best" movie about the aging process--or, if such a thing even exists, about elder law itself?

To be a really good movie on the subject, the fact of maturity should be a central theme. Well, "maturity" may not be the best word here--it suddenly occurs to me that a few folks are likely to suggest Harold and Maude (1971). I, of course, have a few suggestions for the category myself:

Something's Gotta Give (2003), As Good As It Gets (1997) and About Schmidt (2002) seem to me to be the Jack Nicholson triptych on aging. What talent the guy has--he is equally convincing as the aging lothario, the aging compulsive and the aging retiree.

Speaking of aging actors playing, well, aging characters, a little-watched gem from 2000 starring Sean Connery gets high marks in my book. Finding Forrester is a sweet-but-not-sappy multi-generational bit, complete with redemption and hope for the future.

Clients of mine recently told me they wanted their will to include "the inheritance speech" given by John Wayne in McLintock! (1963). I had to confess I didn't know what they were talking about. I went out and bought the movie (it was cheaper and easier than renting it) and am working on getting the speech transcribed. It's a bit of a slapstick movie--with John Wayne, no less--but when he tells his daughter that he's not leaving his entire estate to her because it will be good for her and her husband-to-be to have to do (and earn) something on their own, it definitely becomes an elder-law-related movie. Not great art or theater, but an odd, politically-incorrect and therefore interesting entry in the polling.

Has anyone ever shown aging with more style than Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole in The Lion in Winter (1968)? I really need to update my top-10-ever movies to include this one.

Anyway, what I'm looking for here is some other suggestions. What movie(s) about aging did you think were particularly engaging, moving, uplifting, frightening? Which actor(s) most epitomize aging with grace and dignity, or refusing to go gently, or the reverse of either--in their roles or, for that matter, their personal lives? Let me hear your suggestions--I need to expand my 64-movie-long Netflix queue. For that matter, I need to push past my stagnant 1601 movies rated. Give me a hand here, please.

Robert B. Fleming
Fleming & Curti, PLC
Tucson, Arizona
www.elder-law.com
www.specialneedsalliance.com