Review of Biutiful (2010) by Ceph J — 06 Jun 2011

I've always enjoyed Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's intelligent movies ("Amores Perros", "21 Grams" & "Babel") but this one is ponderous to a fault. It's like watching a horror movie but the horror is a man facing death, divorce, illegal smugglers, taking care of his children, seeing ghosts, talking to the dead, etc. It's depressing and the dark cinematography and dirt-poor locations add to the heaviness of the movie.

Javier Bardem is an excellent actor and he's the best thing about this eternal movie that's over 2 hours. Another problem is that Bardem is such a domineering presence on film, that we expect him to snap out of his misery and start kicking butt. It's not a terrible movie but an interesting failure at connecting with an audience.