Written and directed by Alejandro Ameníƒ ¡bar. Starring Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, and Lola Dueíƒ ±as. Rated PG.

"Life is a right," muses quadriplegic Ramíƒ ³n Sampedro from the prison of his prolonged deathbed, "not an obligation."

Based on a true story, director Alejandro Ameníƒ ¡bar's Golden Globe-winning new film, The Sea Inside, tells the tragic tale of Galician fisherman Sampedro, who spent some 30 years in the courts pleading his right to die after a diving accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.

The Chilean-born Ameníƒ ¡bar, best known for The Others and Open Your Eyes (which inspired Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky), exercises a gentle restraint well-suited to the tragic dignity of his subject. That's not to say that The Sea Inside is one of those indomitable-spirit-triumphing-over-adversity movies that one might stumble across on the Hallmark channel.

As portrayed by the charismatic Javier Bardem (Oscar-nominated for Before Night Falls and seen most recently in Collateral), Sampedro becomes more than just a symbol for the right to die. Acting above the neckline, employing minor facial tics and omnipresent smiles, Bardem does his most ambitious work to date. In his command, Sampedro's lines become the poetry of mortal resignation, his eyes cruel romantic beacons; able to charm women to his bedside but not into his bed. He is warm and friendly, but there is a bitter sting to his calm affability, which masks his fatal acquiescence.

"When you can't escape and you depend on others so much," he declares, "you learn to cry by smiling."

Various people intrude upon Sampedro's bedside world, including his dedicated family, respectful of his every wish except his final request to die. Then there's the inevitable plea from the clergy to choose life over death, although that's clearly easier said than done.

But his most memorable visitors are a pair of distinctly different women.

Rosa, played with giddy enchantment by Lola Dueíƒ ±as, has fallen in love with Sampedro after seeing him on television. Sensing a cause for herself in his continued existence, she is convinced that her loving care will coax him from his death wish.

On the other hand, the former fisherman becomes intoxicated by the visits of a beautiful lawyer named Julia, played by the radiant Belén Rueda. A passionate advocate for death with dignity, Julia sees in Sampedro a case for her cause. We soon learn, however, of her more personal interest in matters of euthanasia, but not before she inspires Sampedro's flying dream. Shot from Sampedro's point of view by the excellent cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, it is the most emotionally thrilling, if bittersweet, sequence in the entire film.

Ameníƒ ¡bar will likely incite continued debate among audience members over the issue of the right to die and over whether or not he has been too manipulative in his storytelling. And although he does appear to lean toward euthanasia, he doesn't avoid showing the grief, furthering a dialogue that makes The Sea Inside a provocative, must-see film.