Ramón just wants to die.

Some 28 years after a diving accident that rendered him paralyzed from the neck down for life, Ramón Sampedro longs for nothing more than to end his life of seclusion and solitude, but the Spanish government, like our own, has strict laws against euthanasia.

That's the setup for The Sea Inside, an intense Spanish drama about life, death, love and the complex relationship these three mysteries have with one another for all of us.

Despite the weightiness of the subject matter, the film, based on actual events, has the soft, easy rhythm of a peaceful autumn tide.

Javier Bardem -- aged several years with the help of convincing but unobtrusive prosthetic makeup -- plays Ramón, a noble soul, withered to near despair but still maintaining a positive (if morbid) perspective on things.

"When you can't escape and you depend on others," Ramón says, "you learn to cry by smiling."

Gené (Clara Segura), an activist sympathetic to Ramón's plight, acquires for him the services of Julia (Belén Rueda), a pro bono attorney who also suffers from a degenerative disease.

As Ramón tells Julia his story and his reasons for wanting to die, they gradually form a special bond with one another. With no confounding sexual element, Ramón and Julia's relationship is a remarkable testament to a love that transcends physical tenderness.

Another character that oozes with love and compassion is Manuela (the sublime Mabel Rivera), Ramón's sister-in-law and caretaker since the accident.

Despite her love for Ramón and her personal desire for him to live, she has maturely accepted his decision, unlike her husband, Ramón's brother José (Celso Bugallo), who bitterly resents Ramón for more reasons than he himself even realizes.

Javi (Tamar Novas), their son, and Joaquín (Joan Dalmau), Ramón's father, linger in the periphery, quietly upset about the situation, but unwilling to take sides in the dispute.

After Julia releases a videotape to the media of Ramón expressing his wish to die, he becomes a kind of celebrity for the right-to-die cause in Spain.

He gets visitors of every kind, including Padre Francisco (José María Pou), a paraplegic priest bent on debating Ramón about the issue, and Rosa (Lola Dueñas), a poverty-stricken single mother who finds solace in Ramón's company.

The Sea Inside is a propaganda piece, to be sure, but not one that beats you across the head with its politics.

Alejandro Amenábar (The Others), who directed, produced, edited, co-wrote and composed the music for the film, is clearly more interested in flushing out the humanity of his dynamic characters than spearheading a right-to-die petition in Spain.

Several critics have questioned Amenábar's refusal to frame the film from Ramón's point of view (i.e. with the exception of a few fantasy sequences) we rarely see events through the hellish lens in which Ramón sees them. More often, our eyes are those of the able-bodied people looking at his gentle, smiling face.

Agreed, we might have a better grasp of Ramón's daily struggle if we saw more of that struggle onscreen, but that isn't the point, I think.

Amenábar isn't trying to show us what it's like to be Ramón. The Sea Inside is about a social issue and thus creates a social atmosphere, one where several of the dignified characters in the ensemble interact in the space of Ramón's room and ultimately make the decisions that drive the narrative themselves.

I'm skeptical that The Sea Inside will change anyone's views about euthanasia -- metaphysical debates tend to be the most difficult to resolve -- but it's even harder to imagine anyone who watches this film avoiding emotional involvement with these vivid characters, crystallized as they are by the note-perfect cast.

The pace of the film is deliberate, not rushed like most modern audiences are used to seeing, but if you can sit back and allow yourself to be swept away by this story, its ebbs and flows will take you on a voyage of love and contemplation that you are bound to remember long after leaving the theater.