Review of Biutiful (2010) by Steven C — 05 Jun 2011

"Biutiful" is Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's most ambitious film. It's ambitious because Inarritu takes his formula of disparate characters and themes pulled together by violence and transplants them inward, into a single character.

The character development and violence is all unseen. Inarritu is known for his globally expansive melodramas and violent cohesion of characters but he moves in much more interesting ways with "Biutiful.

" Because the violence is unseen (cancer, a gas leak, mental disorders, ghosts), the fear of it striking is palpable, death can appear at any moment. Inarritu uses this mood to make the picture feel cohesive and it works.

It helps make the more curious aspects (Uxbal's part time job as a medium, his cocaine fueled nightclub experience) fit with the more tangible (his relationship with his children) ones. Special attention should be paid to Javier Bardem who ultimately makes the film congeal.

His emotionally masterful performance grounds the unfocused aspects of the film and keeps the 2 and a half hour runtime from dragging. Bardem is fantastic at reflecting a characters inner violence (weather it be emotional, like the longing for his son in "Eat Pray Love" or otherwise, like his silent, murderous rampage in "No Country for Old Men).

In "Biutiful" he is a man ravaged by cancer and fate and the violence of those two experiences is written all over him. "Biutiful" is without question an odd experience but it is most certainly a devastating and intriguing one.