Review by Alyn Darnay
Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros)
Starring: Javier Bardem, Blanca Portillo, Eduard Fernandez, Maricel Alvarez.
“Biutiful” is not beautiful, not by a long shot. There are three things you need to know about this film right from the start: 1) Javier Bardem’s performance is masterful, dazzling, the best he’s ever been and worth seeing for it’s absolute daring (He’s been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, and he probably deserves to win). 2) Inarritu is a very talented director, a virtuoso who has made several stand out films characterized by his singular bleak worldview. 3) Watching this film will make you feel like you’re serving an eternity in purgatory; so unrelenting and painful is the hero’s journey here.
Bardem plays Uxbal, a low-level entrepreneur in Barcelona’s seedy underworld. Even though he struggles hard for every dime he makes, he cares desperately for the people who work for him, mostly immigrants living in the multi-ethnic barrio, Al Raval. He runs any con or rip-off he can, to make money for his two beloved children. You see, above all, this is tale of fatherhood, of absolute love for one’s children, and the fight to see that they are taken care of.
Uxbal has left his estranged wife, a manic-depressive sex addict, and maintains custody of the children. As the story starts Uxbal discovers he is dying, and has only a few weeks left to live. As he desperately tries to find ways to provide for the children, everything in his life goes tragically wrong. It’s a constant downward spiral that even his best intensions are not good enough to stop. As the pressure mounts from every side, his struggle to earn a living is replaced by his desperate need to stay alive long enough to protect those he loves. It’s a long dark ride into the abyss, two and a half hours of it.
It’s not that the film is made badly, it’s not. The performances are uniformly superior, the handheld cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto is fantastic, Gustavo Santaolalla’s musical score soars, and even Inarritu’s direction is flawless. The problem is that “Biutiful” is just too unrelenting, too dark, too soul sucking. In the end it lost me, I felt as defeated as the main character. But if you like long depressing art films, and many people do, this one’s right up your alley, everyone else, take a pass.
