Review of Biutiful (2010) by Thomas W — 04 May 2011

I am no longer absolutely certain that Colin Firth fully-deserved his Best Actor Academy Award this year for The King's Speech ... that is how good Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Collateral) is in Biutiful.

In fact, I haven't even seen a poor performance by this actor although some of his movies/choices haven't been all-that stellar (Eat Pray Love, Love in the Time of Cholera, Goya's Ghosts).

Bardem's phenomenal work here isn't enough to make a casual movie-watcher want-to-see or enjoy this heavy (uhm HEAVY) piece of cinema directed by auteur, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel, 21 Grams, Amores Perros).

No Inarritu film is overly-uplifting ... and this one follows suit just as it borrows the tapestry-style of story-telling that has various other narrative threads woven throughout (I don't know if they were all necessary either).

It is sad love story between a father and his two children at its core. Living in a down-and-out neighborhood of Barcelona (although it could take place anywhere), the down-on-his luck father has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the mother of his children is a bi-polar prostitute who cannot be happy.

It takes the viewer through a depressing world of crime, drugs, guilt and spirituality (the topic that features the film's only uplifting moments) in Spanish, Chinese and Senegalese (!). Inarritu can present grit and can make one feel guilt as they witness the harrowing life others live and experience EVERY day.

This is a film; but Inarritu and his cast make it all true-to-life. Biutiful might be overly long (over two and a half hours!) and there isn't a lot of beauty onscreen; but it reminds us of the "biuty" we can find anywhere when things matter -- here it is love and children.

Here is one more reminder (again) -- this is NOT an easy watch. Now for my public service announcement: If you hated Babel, I wouldn't watch this film (I gave Babel an A-).