Review of Biutiful (2010) by Paul W — 26 Jul 2011

I knew Biutiful was about a guy dying from cancer, and I knew Javier Bardem was in it. That's all I knew, though with cancer in the mix I knew it was going to be sad. Boy, is it ever. Biutiful is brutally sad.

It's devastating. And you might think, if you've read my reviews of other sad movies, that all this sadness would have sent me running for a good book. Not so, and that's owing to Javier Bardem, who is brilliant as Uxbal.

But it's not just Javier. It's also Barcelona, as the immigrants, low-level criminals, and working poor see and live it. It's Marical Alvarez, who plays Uxbal's manic-depressive wife Maramba.

It's the illegal Chinese and Senegalese immigrants Uxbal both exploits and tries to help, and the squalor they live and die in. It's Uxbal's kids. Biutiful is just the most engrossing story, and it's told straight, with no embellishments (save for the two short scenes that open and close the movie).

I was moved. I want to learn to appreciate my life. I want to be a better person. Not many movies make me say stuff like that ... even fewer make me mean it.