The Good Death (2012)

Directed by: Wannie de Wijn | 88 minutes | drama | Actors: Will van Kralingen, Huub Stapel, Peter Tuinman, Wilbert Gieske, Hans Thissen, Saskia Bonarius

The opening sentence of ‘The Good Death’ is of an unprecedented directness: ‘Tomorrow my father will die. Tomorrow at 9 o’clock.’ The theme of euthanasia is convincingly portrayed in few words. The film ‘De Goede Dood’ is an adaptation of the play of the same name, which had an unprecedentedly successful national tour in 2008/2009. 65,000 visitors saw the play with a prominent cast: Will van Kralingen, Huub Stapel, Peter Tuinman, Wilbert Gieske, Hans Thissen and Saskia Bonarius. The piece was adapted from a film script and in just over two weeks a complete film was shot with the same line-up.

Bernhard (Wilbert Gieske) is terminally ill and has decided that he wants to end his hopeless suffering. He himself is completely convinced of his decision. However, that does not apply to the rest of the family. Brother Michael (Huub Stapel), with whom he has little contact, hurries over from China. He is a somewhat coarse-mouthed businessman who does not mince words. He wonders how this decision came about. He unabashedly wonders whether someone is interested in the inheritance that would benefit from Bernhard’s death?

Brother Ruben (Hans Thissen) is autistic and lives in a care institution. Due to his disability, he can hardly express his feelings, except when he flourishes behind the piano. Hannah (Will van Kralingen) is Bernhard’s girlfriend, but also Michael’s ex. Hannah and Michael continue to fight fierce rearguard battles over their long-broken relationship. Peter Tuinman plays Robert, best friend and doctor, who struggles with his feelings about euthanasia. However, he has promised Bernhard in the past to help him: with a heavy heart he will/must now carry out the euthanasia. Daughter Sam (Saskia Bonarius) cannot yet accept her father’s death wish. All she wants is for him to stay with her for a while.

The whole company has exactly one evening and one night until the next morning at 9 am. Family and friends are therefore still struggling with the question to which Bernhard has already accepted the answer. He has lived his life. He has his own conception of a good and dignified life, fears further suffering more than death. He is left with a convinced and strong sense of the desire for death. He considers his suffering to be long and heavy enough, he wants to decide for himself about its end.

While Bernhard is critically ill in his bed upstairs, old feuds are fought between Michael and Hannah downstairs and they reproach each other harshly. Suspicion about each other’s intentions is clearly expressed, but at the same time they cannot accept that Bernhard ‘thinks it was nice’. Where one person cannot express himself well and shuts himself off and flees into music (Ruben), the other indulges in drink and gross jokes (Michael). So everyone has his doubts and fears. When Bernhard is confronted with these feelings more and more insistently due to the quarrels downstairs, he manages to change the mood decisively. He has long since ceased to doubt himself, his decision is irrevocable and he is at peace with it. His inner peace is great.

The dialogues are razor sharp at times. Statements by Bernhard such as ‘I have nothing to do with death. Death is yours. Dying is mine’ touch the core of matter. The black humor with sometimes subtle and sometimes harsh jokes at the same time raises the story to a bearable level – despite the weight of the subject. The pitfall of an easy or melodramatic tearjerker has been expertly avoided. The camera work is fine, as is the location.

Yet despite the identical cast to the play, the film adaptation doesn’t really grab you by the throat. There is still a certain distance. The film only really moves you at times, the story doesn’t suck you in. At times, the music is dramatically swelled up. You then get the feeling that you are watching a performance in a theater, where the audience is emphatically responsive. It is precisely then that ‘The Good Death’ lacks the subtlety it could use.

Is the judgment negative due to these somewhat critical remarks? Absolutely not, the filming deserves respect. The burden that everyone carries is being interpreted with dignity. The position of the GP who, because of his earlier promise, has to cooperate but has doubts, the family who is torn apart by opposing feelings, the patient who thinks it is beautiful. All in all, definitely worth going to the cinema.