It's truly a nightmare for the very active Gary Cole when, on a holiday, he flies off his bike over an embankment and becomes a quadrapalegic. In flashback over the opening scenes, it's shown how the accident occured after he was seen doing his normal physical activities, that life permanently stopped when he is diagnosed and sent to a variety of medical institutions where he's sedated, woken up at all hours, and basically just in his mind a wasting and rotting piece of flesh, longing to die.
"The only part that survived", he retorts when he engages an attorney so he can take his life legally and has gotten a reputation with everyone for his smart mouth, spewing anger, the only emotion he has left. His family has run out of emotions in really caring for him, and other friends have stopped coming as well. A talk radio show host (Daniel J. Travianti) becomes his source of comfort, and eventually a regular confidante through the radio show. Beverly D'Angelo is great as his assistant, a redundant statement because she's always great.
This is a hard movie to get into, but once you do, it's hard to stop watching. Cole spits his anger out with gusto, and while his rants aren't laugh out loud funny, there is a subtle, embittered humor there that is both realistic and thought provoking. The hypocrisies of the medical field are dealt with as well, showing some of the doctors and nurses treating Cole as if he's a piece of machinery to be maneuvered at their will. L. Scott Caldwell is outstanding as the tough nurse who takes her responsibilities seriously, representing the good side of his caregiving The film isn't a condemnation of the medical field but the philosophies of life and death that seem hopeless when the body is unable to function, basically a discussion of all the ethical ramifications of his desire to stop his life as he sees fit. Emotionally gripping and powerfully acted.
