Truman

Spanish filmmaker Cesc Gay's wistful, melancholic dramady "Truman" swept his country's Goya and Gaudi Awards; now it's about to hit U.S. screens, where it is bound to have appreciative audiences reaching for their Kleenex.

It's the story of middle-aged Argentinian actor Julian (Ricardo Darin), now transplanted in Madrid for the past couple of decades, where he has enjoyed a very success career on the stage and in films. He has recently found out that all the treatments he has undergone during the past year for his lung cancer have not been able to stop the onslaught, and his options are fast running out. Now he's decided that rather undergo another grueling round of chemotherapy -- a course of action his doctors agree will, at best, delay his death slightly -- he will simply stop all treatment, so as not to spend whatever time he has left in and out of hospitals.

Julien lives alone. His family consists of Nico (Oriol Pla), his 21-year-old son who is a university student in Amsterdam, and his faithful dog, Truman. He worries equally about both of them. Nico's girlfriend Sophie (Lucie Desclozeaux) will be there with him when the time comes, but Truman will have no one, so a very picky Julian starts to look for somebody good enough to adopt him.

The movie actually starts with the arrival of Julian's best friend, Tomas (Javier C�mara), who is now a college professor in Canada. Whatever he pretends, the purpose of his four-day visit is to talk his friend out of stopping all his treatments. However, as Julien ushers him around the city going from doctor to undertaker, it is obvious that there will be no shifting him from his decision. The two settle back into the comfort of their deep and long friendship, with each of them doing his best to avoid the reality that this is the last time they will ever spend together.

They even make a surprise side trip to Amsterdam for lunch with Nico, and even though Tomas pleads with his old friend to come clean with his son about his recent diagnosis, Julien finds he simply cannot do it. (Turns out later that it wasn't necessary anyway.)

As the four-day visit begins to draw to an end, even though Julian is at peace with his impending death, he is still deeply concerned about what will happen to Truman. He also wants to make amends, as when he runs into the husband of a woman with whom he once had an affair, causing their divorce. Julian often says, "Each person dies as best he can," and he simply wants to do the same.

The script that Gay co-wrote with Tom�s Aragay doesn't make light of the subject matter, but it is imbued with some beautiful humor that helps make this drama so much more entertaining. Most of the credit, however, must go to the extraordinarily talented Darin, who as Julien makes his relationship with Tomas -- and in fact with everyone else -- so immensely touching. He pitches his performance so perfectly, and whilst it has more than its share of sadness, it has its moments of joy that you know that he wants to be his real legacy.

Still, you might want to have two boxes of Kleenex handy: One for Julian, and one for Truman.