Review of Biutiful (2010) by Duval K — 03 Jun 2011

"Biutiful" is a slow-moving, longwinded journey that leads to... nowhere. This film just took too long to get into the plot and lost my interest within the first 20 minutes. In this character study, a lot of time is spent developing the characters that surround Javier Bardem to indirectly tell the story of his life and what he needs to do in order to make things right before his life comes to an end.

The unsteady camerawork gives it the personal feel necessary to feel as if you are living the film. Unfortunately, the upsetting content is nothing that anybody WANTS to live out. There are moments when retribution seemingly will bring happiness, but those moments are met with upsetting scenes (the Chinese warehouse, the child abuse) to keep you down in the dumps.

I was particularly annoyed with the strip club scene, which did not develop the plot and merely made the film 15 minutes too long. I have to compliment Bardem's performance as he filled this film with his raw emotion.

I also enjoyed the ending as everything came full circle. Unfortunately, I cannot say that it is worth enduring 2 1/2 hours of depressing content (not to mention asense that the film didn't really go anywhere) in order to watch Bardem perform.