Review of Biutiful (2010) by Panta O — 08 Apr 2011

I read critical and I read good reviews for this film... and I wonder sometimes what the guys (and girls) were watching before writing bad reviews for this well made drama which won't leave you without reaction before leaving the cinema! Javier Bardem is Uxbal, a small time player in the criminal underworld of Barcelona; amidst efforts to protect a band of immigrant workers and his own family, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Biutiful is slow in reaching the full blossoming of what's being planted... some critics thought that it builds and builds, and deflates when seems like it should explode... and I will respectfully disagree! It is very thoughtful and moral film. Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu manages to leave the cast to their own devices and Bardem used that wisely! The film was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2011 - Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor, which it lost to In a Better World and Colin Firth for The King's Speech, respectively. Bardem's nomination makes his performance the first entirely Spanish language performance to be nominated for that award. Bardem also received the Best Actor Award at Cannes for his work on the film. He deserved it fully!

For the end, just to mention that filmmakers Sean Penn, Werner Herzog and Michael Mann have been very outspoken in their acclaim for the film. Herzog likened it to a "poem" and Penn compared Bardem's performance to that of Marlon Brando's in Last Tango in Paris. Even Julia Roberts has also been very supportive... watch it and see why!