Review of Biutiful (2010) by Chris W — 01 Feb 2012

Uxbal's life is quite a mess: he's a sngle father of two, and struggles to raise them, primarily by working on the wrong side of the law trying to help out illegal immigrants. Besides navigating the underside of Barcelona to make end's meet, he also has to deal with his bipolar ex-wife who is a danger to their kids. Oh yeah, and he's also terminally ill with cancer.

Obviously from that set-up, it is pretty clear that the film is bleak and depressing. Death and despair may be at the center of things, but there's still hope and humanity, so all is not completely lost. This is still a tough one to sit through, not only because of the tone and subject matter, but because it's two and a half hours and moves at an unhurried pace.

I kinda like that Inarritiu decided to do away with the gimmick of his previous works (playing fast and loose with chronology, narrative, and interconnected storylines), because, even though that sort of thing is fun once in a while, it gets really old really fast. But, even with that element gone, I was unhappy over the fact that this film was needlessly overlong and moved slowly, especially since the plot is rather loose.

It's a fine story, but it just needs to be tightened up and not so sprawling. It wouldn't be that hard to condense everythng and still get the point across. Ultimately though, things are thankfully saved due to the nice soundtrack, good cinematography, and the performances, primarily Bardem's, who is the sole reason the film is held together and ultimately works. It's a strong and moving performance, and the humanity Bardem brings with it give the audience someone to really empathize with.

I cared for the character and whatr was happening, but honestly, it didn't last. As I mentioned, the film is over long, so there's lots of repetition and the film just rambles. I could only take so much before I began to get bored and stop caring as much. Even with the good stuff going on here, it's not enough to completely save things.

I think that Inarritu does some good work, and, as much as I like taking a break from hollow Hollywood crap, pretentious art house fare can become just as stale as that stuff, and just as fast, too.

Because some of it does work (and work well), I'll inflate what was going to be a straight C into a mild C+.