Richard Dreyfuss is typically mercurial as an artist who is involved in an auto accident and is paralyzed from the neck down; he fights for his right to die with dignity while laid up in his hospital room, causing consternation amongst the hospital staff. Adapation of Brian Clark's celebrated (if thin) stage play--whose leading character has been portrayed at different times by both male and female actors--is given a fairly tight direction by John Badham, who seems unaware that Dreyfuss' sculptor can be awfully obnoxious on occasion. Still, the material has strong moments, and the supporting performances by John Cassavetes and (most especially) Christine Lahti are top-notch. Attempts to "open up" the stagy action tend to falter, with a pot-smoking sequence that is simply extraneous, yet it's a moving and satisfying picture, if somewhat aloof. **1/2 from ****
Review of Whose Life Is It Anyway?
