VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE
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Director: Emily Young
Screenplay: Roberta Hanley and Larry Gross
US Release Date: 20 January 2015
Gellar's role: Veronika Deklava
Length: 103 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Music: Murray Gold
"Madness is the inability to communicate one’s ideas. It’s as if you were in a foreign country: you see everything, you’re aware of what’s going on around you, but you’re unable to explain yourself."
---- Paolo Cohelo, Veronika Decides To Die
Based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Paulo Cohelo, the film follows Veronika, who attempts suicide, and shortly after waking in a mental hospital, learns that she has only a short time to live.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The story begins with Veronika (Gellar) -- the spelling of her name presumably derives from the fact that the source material was set in Slovenia -- attempting suicide via an overdose of pills and booze in lieu of continuing her prosperous but apparently spiritually unfulfilling life. Needless to say, the effort fails and she instead wakes up in an upstate New York mental asylum, where she’s informed that her overdose caused a heart attack and resulting aneurysm that will certainly kill her within a week or so."
"Gellar bravely strips away all vanity for the character of Veronika, a thirty-something businesswoman suffering from depression, and brings the viewer head-on into a collision of emotional exhaustion. Veronika is a lonely character, but also a selfish one, and it’s tremendously refreshing how dedicated Gellar becomes in delivering the reality of the character without sugar-coating the ugliness. She doesn’t try to create a heroine, just a fleshed-out human being who has convinced herself that life is nothing but a depressing field of emptiness.
--- Reese Film Review
Slideshow - Veronika Decides To Die
"It’s artfully made, achieving drama without words. Jonathan Tucker’s Edward – whose secret backstory is among the things that keep a viewer engrossed – doesn’t even speak. Although it’s not overly indulgent, we could drift away at times on the delicate piano score. Indeed, a pivotal scene finds Veronika revisiting her skills on the ivories, playing a gorgeously passionate song while Edward looks on, as enthralled as we are. The writers give complementary arcs to the supporting cast, including...David Thewlis as the lead psychologist, Melissa Leo as a veteran patient who is doing well, and Erika Christensen as the requisite oddball patient."
-- John Hansen --Reviews From My Couch
Cohelo's book also inspired an album of the same title by Danish band Saturnus, and the songs "Veronica" by Japanese band Aqua Timez, and "Saint Veronika" by Canadian band Billy Talent.
Gellar's makeup artist for Sarah Michelle Gellar was Caryn Bardunias, who also did Gellar's makeup for Suburban Girl, Harvard Man, and Simply Irresistible.
TRAILER
VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE can be streamed on TUBI. It is also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
CAST
- Sarah Michelle Gellar - Veronika Deklava
- Jonathan Tucker - Edward
- Erika Christensen - Claire
- Melissa Leo - Mari
- Florencia Lozano - Dr. Thompson
- Rena Owen - Nurse Josephine
- Erica Gimpel - Nurse White
- Victor Slezak - Gabriel Durant
- Barbara Sukowa - Mrs. Deklava
- Victor Steinbach - Mr. Deklava
- Holter Graham - Eric Grafton
- David Thewlis - Dr. Blake
- Matthew Cowles - Old Fred
- Jeff Applegate - Anti-Pundit
- Meg Gibson - Pro-Pundit
- Lisette Bross - Work Colleague #1
- David Skeist - Work Colleague #2
- Tania Santiago - Work Colleague #3
- Jill Dalton - Work Colleague #4
- Al Roffe - Superintendent
- Nicolette Hart - Reporter
- Virl Andrick - Boss
- Ward Horton - PR Guy
- Jessica Kaye - Bartender
- Amanda LaPergola - Shouting Patient
- Gregory Marcel - Coffee Boy
- Lisa Ramirez - Female Swimming Pool Patient
- Stuart Rudin - Deluded Man Patient
- Waleed Zuaiter - Lecturer
- John Farrer - Old Fisherman
- Michael Harkins - Parent
NURSES: Christy Bella Joiner, Jill Marie Lawrence, Adrian Martinez, and Rafael Sardina
Veronika wa shinu koto ni shita
Director: Kei Horie
Screenplay: Tomomi Tsutsui
US Release Date: 4 February 2006 (Japan)
Length: 103 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Genre: Horror
Composer: Andrea Morricone
Following a suicide attempt, Towa wakes up in a sanatorium for the mentally ill. She is told there is irreparable damage to her heart and she has only 10 days to live. She becomes close to Claude, a man who has lost the ability to speak.
Niels Matthijs (Onderhond) reviewed the film for Letterboxed: "A fine mix of arthouse and gentle kookiness. I'd expected a more serious drama going in, and it's not as if the film doesn't have any dramatic climaxes, but there's also a lot of time spent exploring the weirder side of its premise. It shares some DNA with Koreeda's After Life, but in the end the films are quite different from each other.
CAST of 'Veronika wa shinu koto ni shita'
- Yôko Maki - Towa
- Lee Wan - Kurôdo
- Jun Fubuki - Shôko
- Tomoko Nakajima - Sachi
- Keiko Oginome - Fuchô
- Yumi Takigawa - Towa's mother
- Keiko Awaji - Beniko
- Masachika Ichimura - Inchô
The film is available on Blu-ray. YouTube has a trailer.
