Sundance 2011: HOW TO DIE IN OREGON Review - Collider

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Menu Follow Followed Like More Action Sign in now Screen Awards Got A Pitch? Videos 2025 Movie Releases Screenings What to Watch Originals Reviews Close By Matt Goldberg Published Jan 27, 2011 Matt Goldberg has been an editor with Collider since 2007. As the site's Chief Film Critic, he has authored hundreds of reviews and covered major film festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. He resides in Atlanta with his wife and their dog Jack. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

I don’t have an opinion on the euthanasia debate. The issue is simply too personal to each individual for me to weigh in and tell complete strangers that they shouldn’t take their own lives or that they shouldn’t have to endure more pain. Peter D. Richardson’s documentary How to Die in Oregon supports the “death with dignity” argument by showing how some people in Oregon, which has legalized euthanasia, are taking advantage of the new law. The movie is heartbreaking as we watch terminal patients struggle with the decision to end their own life with “dignity” (I put that in quotations for a reason I’ll explain later in the review). While the film works brilliantly on an emotional level, it does its advocacy a disservice through oversights and unnecessary tangents.There are two major stories in How to Die in Oregon. The first is about Cody Curtis, a married 52-year-old mother of two who is dying of liver cancer. The other follows Nancy, a widow who’s on a mission to fulfill her dead husband’s final request that euthanasia be legalized in their home state of Washington. Richardson takes minor detouts as we briefly meet supporters of euthanasia or terminal patients who are considering “physician-assisted suicide”.I put words like “physician-assisted suicide” and “death with dignity” in quotations because I feel that they’re slogans. Much like “pro-life” and “pro-choice”, the slogans imply that the opposition supports looking for an easy way out or a shameful death, respectively. The film also highlights the work of the group “Compassion and Choices”, which sends out volunteers to help euthanize patients looking to avail themselves of the Oregon law. Again, the notion of “compassion”, which means to suffer with, doesn’t really apply to a stranger who is going to mix the lethal dose of medication into your drink so that you can die.It was because of these rhetorical roadblocks that I had some trouble finding my way into the movie as easily as others I’ve spoken to about it. However, Richardson’s journey with Cody eventually got me tearing up. It’s bittersweet to see this funny, good-hearted woman who doesn’t wish to die but has planned for that contingency so that her death will be on her terms. Cody’s journey is powerful and moving as she holds almost nothing back from the audience. Nancy’s tale of trying to get Initiative 1000 passed in Washington is compelling, but it exists in a political territory the film isn’t really willing to explore.How to Die in Oregon makes a case for “death with dignity” but that case is weakened by Richardson’s over-reliance on the emotional impact and conducting unnecessary interviews. If the film wants to sell me on legalizing euthanasia, then I want to know more facts. I want to know about other options for end-of-life care. I want to know if the doctor-prescribed death drink ever fails to kill the patient and instead sends them into a persistent vegetative state. At one point, a title card tells us that Cody is improving under “palliative care”, but it doesn’t tell us what that means or entails. Rather than take the time to show a broader view of end-of-life care, Richardson shows tangential scenes which don’t benefit the emotional or intellectual impact of the movie. For example, in one scene he meets with the founder of the “Hemlock Society” (a name I found dreadfully glib), an organization dedicated to legalizing euthanasia. After the scene, we never see the society’s founder again.On an emotional level, How to Die in Oregon is a triumph. It pulls at your heartstrings without feeling manipulative and when we look at Cody, we see our own loved ones, and the thought of losing them slowly and painfully is absolutely gut-wrenching. But on an intellectual level, the film is unsatisfying. Euthanasia is a loaded issue and Richardson does his audience a disservice by not providing them with a broader view of the benefits and weaknesses of various options one has when considering their end-of-life care.Rating: B-For all of our coverage of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, click here. Also, here are links to all of my Sundance reviews so far:

• Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
• Benavides Born
• Bobby Fischer Against the World
• Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel
• The Details
• Higher Ground
• Hobo with a Shotgun
• Homework
• In a Better World
• The Interrupters
• The Lie
• Like Crazy
• Magic Trip
• Martha Marcy May Marlene
• The Music Never Stopped
• My Idiot Brother
• Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times
• Project Nim
• Reagan
• Red State
• Salvation Boulevard
• Submarine
• These Amazing Shadows
• Tyrannosaur
• Win Win

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