Whose Life Is It Anyway?

A film set in a hospital room. Ken is a sculptor. He is in a road accident and is paralysed from the neck down. Six months pass. There is no change and the doctors say it is permanent. Ken makes a decision. He wants to leave the hospital and knows he cannot live outside it; that is, he wants to die. Doctor Emerson is against it. He is treating him and takes the decision for a symptom of the condition. A sedative is given. Ken refuses it and asks for a lawyer. From there the film becomes a legal story. A petition, a psychiatric assessment and a hearing held in the room. The court comes to the hospital. The judge sits by the bed and Ken argues his own case. What the narrative is interested in is not death but authority: its question is not whether Ken is right but whose decision it is. The hospital staff are inside the narrative. Nurses, a physiotherapist and a cleaner; each speaks to Ken differently, and the humanity in the room comes from there. Ken is not likeable. He jokes constantly, makes people uncomfortable, and uses his humour as a defence. The doctor does not mean harm. He genuinely works to save lives and the film does not put him in the wrong. Richard Dreyfuss plays the whole part without moving. The narrative leaves him only his face and his voice. The source is Brian Clark's play; the text was staged for a long time and in some productions the part was given to a woman. Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti and Bob Balaban are in the cast. John Badham directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes drama built on law and medical ethics. Who it is not for: anyone who wants to stay away from the subject; the narrative takes place entirely in one room and the argument never eases.