C'est ma vie, après tout!

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.

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.

This film is among the best of all time. I've seldom seen a movie in which all actors -- from the star to the smallest bit player -- deliver such forceful, realistic performances. I felt as if I were actually in that hospital room with Ken Harrison et al. While the film, which is about a sculpture who becomes a quadriplegic in a car accident and then decides to die rather than live life in that condition, has a seemingly depressing plot line, it is actually uplifting. Richard Dreyfus has the remarkable ability to infuse the main character with humor as well as sadness. It is a tribute to the director, writers, and actors that this movie, which could have easily been a maudlin weepy, turned out to be a paean to the indomitable human spirit.

Events in your life can shape and change you...sometimes radically. Before my heart attack and triple bypass I rated this 8*. Now, it is a most resounding 10*! In "Whose Life" the life-altering event for sculptor Ken Harrison (Richard Dreyfuss in an outstanding performance) was a traffic accident that left him quadriplegic.

About 6 months after the fact, Harrison begins to to realize that not only his sculptures, but his perception of the world, its interpretation and his own self-image had been shaped through the use of his hands. Of course, his hands "died" on the day of the accident, and therefore, Harrison concludes, so did he.

The film focuses on both his day to day struggle to cope with his unbearable condition and his confrontation with the hospital administration, or at least with its decision-making chief medical officer, Dr. Emerson (John Cassavetes-turning in a fine performance), who is intent on keeping Harrison in the hospital and under its care, against his will, even if that means declaring Harrison incompetent.

Christine Lahti also has a supporting role. The film is highly effective but not pretentious or preachy in the least.

10*STARS*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English or Español, are most welcome!

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!!!