Movie Reviews: The Return, The Sea Inside, and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

Here’s the latest batch of mini movie reviews as I check my way through movie lists by watching a lot of “classic” films.

The Return | The Sea Inside | Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring

The Return | DVD On Demand
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s debut is a coming-of-age story dealing with the return of an estranged father. Two brothers, Andrei and Vanya, are excited when their father returns after 12 years, essentially their entire lives. He takes them on a trip that forces the boys to deal with who their father is and the adults they must become.

The young actors, Vladimir Garin and Ivan Dobronravov, work through various facial expressions as they emotionally mature on screen. Originally, I had this film rated at 3.5 Wheels in Spin, but the more I think about the film, the more enraptured I become with it. So I’ll bump it up to…
Wheels in Spin:

The Sea Inside | DVD On Demand
The Sea Inside is a Spanish biopic staring Javier Bardem as Ramón Sampedro. He is a quadriplegic with complete loss of movement below his neck, the result of a diving accident, spending 28 years fighting for the right to end his life. The film deals with the effects that Sampedro and his court battle have on his friends and family.

This film won numerous awards. In 2004, it practically swept the Goya Awards, Spain’s major film awards, winning 14 of its 15 nominations. The Sea Inside also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Director Alejandro Amenábar gives a strong presentation of a sensitive topic. But the acting of the entire cast is the quality that makes the film so powerful. Javier Bardem shows the magnitude of abilities. Even with the limits of portraying a quadriplegic, Bardem gives a mesmeric performance, as always. The entire supporting cast, especially Belén Rueda as lawyer with Cadasil syndrome, rises to the occasion.
Wheels in Spin:

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring | DVD
Secluded in a floating monastery on South Korea’s Jusan Pond, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring goes through the stages of life of a monk’s young pupil. Each stage – from childhood to adolescence, young adult to elder monk – is represented by a different season until he becomes the teacher.

Director Kim Ki-duk, who also portrays the monk in his oldest stage, created a movie full of beauty with the way the story is told and filmed. It poetically captures the mantras of Buddhism.
Wheels in Spin: