Review of Biutiful (2010) by Ola G — 08 Jun 2011

Uxbal (Javier Bardem), is a single father of two children Ana and Mateo, and their life is set in the ugly, dirty and less glamorous back streets of Barcelona. He is a survival artist and act as a medium, jobfinder to illegal immigrants and a supplier of blackmarket goods to illegal street vendors. His life takes a new turn one day when he finds out that he suffers from terminal prostate cancer. Suddenly he has to regain spiritual insight in his life and deal with his bipolar ex wife, his children, his family, his different sources of income, the immigrants that works for him and his upcoming death...

Nominated for an Oscar for both Best Foreign Film and Best Actor (an excellent Javier Bardem), Alejandro Inarritu's "Biutifu" is a story about those who live on the margins of life. The ones who has to struggle to make ends meet. The ones who get nothing for free. The movie handles so many heavy global topics at the same time it´s impressive that Inarritu manages to keep the movie together and not lose the viewer in the process. How do you handle the fact that you only have a few months more to live? Not being able to see your children grow up? The fear of death and the hope for redemption for the things you regret. "Biutiful" shows us the two sides of life where beauty and misery lives next to eachother. It´s a rough movie to watch with many dark corners of life as the foundation of the story, but yet it shows us a belief in the afterlife and the light that comes with it.