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Biutiful (2010)

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

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24 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Cannes Film Festival juries may have made some wobbly decisions over the years, but giving Javier Bardem the Best Actor award for his career-best turn as a backstreet Barcelona operator confronting a sea of troubles while doing his best for his kids isn’t one of them.

Bardem plays Uxbal, a grafter who shuttles between corrupt police, Chinese sweatshop owners and illegal African street hawkers. He brings comfort to the bereaved by passing on messages from the deceased, while at the same time coping with his estranged wife’s bipolar disorder and facing the shadow of serious illness himself.

The role offers Bardem innumerable chances to chew the scenery. Instead, his work is a model of restraint: he invests the role with an affecting, sad-eyed dignity that keeps the story grounded. Attempting to embody the powerful idea that one person can really make a difference is no mean challenge, since there’s a danger of coming across like some empty symbol – but Bardem’s Uxbal is a man, brave and strong, hurting and vulnerable.

Actually, it’s just as well that Bardem is so effective, since the movie needs a strong lead to give its freeform theatrics a controlling pulse: can one film contain post-globalisation liberal hand-wringing, I-see-dead-people spirituality, kids fearing for their daddy’s health, gay villains and manic-depressive emotional hyper-dynamics?

Granted, it sounds a mess, and coming after the disappointments of ‘21 Grams’ and the dreadful ‘Babel’ from Mexican maverick Alejandro González Iñárritu, one might be forgiven for being a little suspicious. Having parted ways with regular writer, Guillermo Arriaga, whose own 2008 project ‘The Burning Plain’ was marred by overwrought contrivance, Iñárritu must have felt ‘Biutiful’ was a make-or-break project for him to establish his creative identity, which is why the sheer absence of caution is disarming and captivating.

This is not a film for ascetic souls attuned to buttoned-down restraint. Its washed-out colours turn the city of Gaudí into a kind of purgatory, there’s an amazingly jarring score from Gustavo Santaolalla and the plot is a pile-up of Job-like tribulations. The exposed nerve endings, though, are apt for a story that tackles the question of whether the sufferings of the world cause us to fold in on ourselves or reach out.

The film asks whether the idea of ‘good’ is an irrelevance or a choice driven by some calling from within? Since even its title is drawn from a child’s innocent misspelling, it’s best not to expect ‘Biutiful’ to offer a rigorous thematic workout for these issues: this is a film assembled on instinct rather than reflection.

Like a piece of contemporary music where a whole array of discordant elements evoke a gut response easier to experience than explain (think Birtwistle, Xenakis, Carter), Iñárritu’s film won’t work for everyone. Yet, it offers consolation that, in a world of numbing, overwhelming anguish, human feeling is still possible. It’s a reminder that compassion isn’t always a rational decision, but an uncontrollable emotion. What can I say? I cried.

Author: Trevor Johnston

Time Out London Issue 2110: 27 Jan – 2 Feb, 2011

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User reviews of this film

may said...

Posted on Sep 04 2011 10:47 I thought this film was brilliant.

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RM said...

Posted on Jul 17 2011 22:26 I have never posted on a film before. I felt i had to because this is an important film to assess because it deals with many things that are not usually addressed in film in such a stark way. I also love films that look into the father / children relationship. But im sorry to say, this film isn't a masterpiece. with all respect to the makers and actors involved, i think this it is probably just a very gritty portrayal of a very sad life in a very bleak part of Barcelona. I dont think there is really any development of the relationship between the main character and people in his life. there is a clever start and end to the film, which is dreamlike and kind of captures someone's death and the way the spirit might connect to someone elses upon passing. but the bulk of the film is a documentary about how a life can spiral downwards. it is just like watching a drug addict's last few weeks. i would honestly say this film this film should probably be skipped.

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nitascreename said...

Posted on Jun 27 2011 21:46 If you watch the ige return scene in slomo on the dvd the shadowy figure looks like it is uxbal himself - just as the figure on the ceiling was. Since both kids are not in the final scene and uxbal has a history of speaking for the deceased his daughter may not have been there either. It makes for quite a haunting ending to the film for sure – no matter which way you decide.

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Dan said...

Posted on May 12 2011 01:42 Truly great. I'm still amazed at what it achieves. It will stand the test of time and I can't believe there will be a better film released this year.

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HollandMovierLover said...

Posted on Mar 15 2011 23:22 I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago in the local cinema and purely by chance I saw Ken Loach's **It's a free world** two weeks ago on the Belgian National Television and with due respect to the makers and the whole team of Biutiful, I must say that I was personally much more impressed with Ken Loach's film (both films dealt with the issue of illegal immigration in Spain and the UK respectively) which was never released in the Netherlands as far as I know. By the way, if you ask me, shouldn't Mark Wahlberg and not Javier Bardem be getting the Best Actor nomination last January (for his role in The Fighter)? I saw The Figher last week and his role certainly impressed me much more than Javier Bardem did in Biutiful. Javier Bardem was very good in a couple of other movies but his performance in Biutiful was just OK when compared to some of his outstanding roles in previous movies.

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Nancy said...

Posted on Feb 22 2011 14:43 Howdy: that's why I like Gonzalez Inarritu because it takes the opportunity to send a message out of context but very powerful, for me he wanted to say that even Chinesse people are known for being very conservative in their ways, they do suffer from repression in their sexuality, so the rest of the world and we should accept that reality and respect them : )
Beautiful movie in many ways, I think we all want to believe Ige came back....I was crying and thinking inside "pls don't go!!!...lol ...I dont care if they don't win an Oscar...who cares the Oscars when you know this movie is great!!

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marcia218 said...

Posted on Feb 17 2011 16:18 great yet solemn movie.
a must see.
i too wondered whether ige really did return or was it in uxball's mind? i do feel though now, that she did return because the kids were at home. she would have picked them up from school. but my question is, does anyone know who the actor is that was in the first (snowy) scene with bardem (his father) and again in the end and when bardem and his brother were about to cremate the remains of their father?
thank you.

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v. mueller said...

Posted on Feb 16 2011 15:53 That is Soul!! not sour

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V. Mueller said...

Posted on Feb 16 2011 15:52 Definite five stars. Saw it alone on a gray afternoon. Very powerful and inner sour provoking..One question. What did the butterflies on the ceiling represent?

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evan said...

Posted on Feb 13 2011 20:25 I can't remember a film that I loved so much being so incredibly difficult to watch. About half-way through I was minutes from walking out. It was in the middle of the day and I couldn't see the point of being inside watching such an unrelentingly depressing film. But then something quite interesting happened and in a short while I was glued to my seat.
I left thinking that this was an astounding, brave film. It's incredible that it was made considering how grueling it it to watch. And Bardem is simply amazing.

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JS said...

Posted on Feb 10 2011 13:45 Superb, gets all five stars from me. Emotionally overwhelming and truly sad. How brave to make a film like this and in this way. Great performances from the whole cast, but Bardem is 'stand-out' and will thoroughly deserve Oscar if he gets it. Juxtaposition of the Barcelona we know and love with the seedy underside we never see is brilliantly portrayed. Can't get this film out of mind.

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Steves said...

Posted on Feb 09 2011 07:41 Not so sure Ige returns. We only see her sillhouette through the opaque door. Could have been in Uxal's mind given his delusional state. What do others think ?

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Lorna Singh said...

Posted on Feb 05 2011 02:41 I'm really looking forward to this film,based on the director,actors and good reviews.Although,I recall one critic saying that he admired the film,just didn't like it that much.

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ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Feb 03 2011 19:09 Well worth seeing. Take tissues.

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ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Feb 03 2011 12:45 you dudes have influenced me to see this film. I go today. Review later. Peace.

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