Making-of doc makes 'Sea' worth owning

If the movie doesn't blow your mind, the DVD will. "The Sea Inside" won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and damn near swept the Goya Awards (Spain's equivalent to the Academy Awards), including taking home the statuette for best picture. So this movie is good. Even-better, the DVD provides a subtle but thorough accompaniment to this great film. \nThe film itself tells the story of Ramón Sampedro, a quadriplegic man from the northwestern Spanish province of Galicia. Sampedro's desire is simple: he wants to die. He says repeatedly in the film that his life, as he lives it, has no dignity. After 28 years in his condition, he's ready to go, and the film documents his journey back to his sea inside. \nNearly everything about the film is pitch-perfect: the acting is subtle and nuanced, the scenery is gorgeous and the soundtrack is, in a word, mindblowing. The best part, though, is that the film doesn't demand that you agree with Ramón. It tackles a messy emotional issue, but it simply asks you to understand why he would make the decision he does. \nThe DVD includes a wonderful making-of documentary. Most on DVDs these days are talking heads and odd shots from the cutting room floor, but this doc follows Alejandro Amenábar (who also directed "The Others") and screenwriter Mateo Gil through their process of fine-tuning the screenplay. It also details that because of the controversial subject matter, the producers considered moving the film to "Anglo territory" as they did with "The Others." Ultimately, though, Amenábar felt the story was too inextricably intertwined with the heart of Spanish culture and the social landscape and it was kept true to life. The three deleted scenes could only have been cut for time constraints, because they are as wonderful as the rest of the movie. \nSo while I'm sorry that I did miss this gem in the theaters, the DVD features make me a little glad that I did. They turn a wonderful film into a fantastic DVD experience.