Veronika Decides to Die (Veronika Decides to Die)

Production and year: USA, 2009 Genre: Drama Screenplay: Larry Gross, Roberta Hanley Director: Emily Young Music: Murray Gold Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Thewlis, Jonathan Tucker, Melissa Leo, Erika Christensen Medical themes: depression, mutism, psychiatric hospital Description: This is a film adaptation of Paul Coelho’s famous novel. The title character, Veronika (Sarah Michelle Gellar), is a successful modern woman who has achieved a high professional and social standing; however, she does not view her future as entirely happy and harbors gloomy visions of a failed life in which she is certain to fail emotionally. She suffers from depression, which one day leads her to attempt suicide by overdosing on medication. The attempt is unsuccessful, however; the protagonist wakes up after many days in a high-end psychiatric hospital, paid for by her parents, where she learns from the attending psychiatrist (David Thewlis) that the medication has damaged her circulatory system, causing an inoperable, ever-growing aneurysm, due to which she could die at any moment. The woman, initially regretting that her suicide attempt failed, makes acquaintances and friends in the hospital, and in an unusual way, a bond develops between her and another patient suffering from mutism (Jonathan Tucker). Along with this feeling, her will to live slowly returns, and knowing that her days are numbered, she is able to enjoy every moment she has left. Both she and her beloved overcome the illnesses that plague them, but does their love truly have no future? As it turned out, the psychiatrist’s unconventional therapy played a key role.