Ist das nicht mein Leben?

I am a great fan of Richard Dreyfuss. This, by far, is his best role. I am in healthcare and this movie handles the issue of dying with dignity and quality of life with brilliance. I really wish everyone would watch this great movie.

This masterpiece is one of my all time favourite films. Richard Dreyfuss plays an unforgettable role as the exuberant and creative sculptor who becomes paralysed from the neck down after a car accident and argues for his right to be discharged from hospital so that he can end his life.

The entire cast provide great performances including Christine Lahti, John Cassavetes, Bob Balaban but it is Richards Dreyfuss which makes this film as brilliant as it is. He takes you on a journey where the viewer actually feels pain when he is in pain, we feel sad when he is sad and laugh when he laughs.

Although the movie is about the right to die, it is not at all depressing. It is a movie filled with raw emotion, love and humour. Definitely a must see movie

This film may well deal with a taboo area of medicine which of course is patients control over their own death. The film deals with a very morbid subject area without descending into difficult viewing.Richard Dreyfuss's delivers a continum of comedy while not betraying the feeling of hopelessness felt by his character. Other than great dialogue and acting the film leaves the viewer questioning common sense notions of the rightieusness (probably spelt wrong sorry) of medical professionals as well as acknowledging the reality that the institution of medicine is a new religion that dictates its own values on the less powerful subjects in its claws (claws is too much isn't it). Great film!!!

I was born in 1997 and a couple of years later I was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Type 2.

Since I can remember myself I was not able to walk, move my arms by myself, being able to eat whatever I wanted (my swallowing was weak), move my head without having to be afraid that it would fall off to the side if I wasn't careful and so on. I was somewhat capable of doing things by myself and for anything else I needed my parents would help me out. I didn't mind being stuck on a wheelchair and not have the freedom to be independent for the rest of my life as long as I was partially limited by my disability. I woke up, my mom dressed me, put me on the wheelchair and we went to school. There, I could do everything by myself or with the help of my classmates/friends.

After I finished Elementary school my disability got progressively worse. One day, I was at my grandparents' house and I got sick. I got so sick the next day I couldn't breathe. And I couldn't breathe because SMA mainly affects the lungs, and mine were so weak at that point that no matter how hard I was trying to cough, the mucus inside my lungs couldn't come out and eventually blocked my trachea. Long story short - My parents came, I passed out on the way home, we went to the hospital (which to my BAD luck was on the way going home) and I am bed-bound with a tracheotomy and a ventilator ever since. All that happened when I was 14. I am currently 23. All I am able to move now are my eyes and my right thumb which I am currently using to control my trackball mouse. That's it. My whole life and mental health depend on a computer.

I could tell you more but it's very tiresome writing with one finger. Just know that I feel EXACTLY the same as Ken in this movie. But unlike him, I will never have a girlfriend, a job that I like, or the option to die and be free of this useless body.

I would say that this movie is very interesting.

May doctors let a patient die? Is it right to keep a person who wants to die alive?

These are two questions which this movie handles, and you have the possibility to agree or not. But wether you like the idea of letting a patient die or not, the movie really makes you think about all the angles in this case.

I would rate it 8/10.