Review of Biutiful (2010) by Mahek R — 26 Apr 2011

First things first, Bardem was robbed of Oscar! Here, Javier Bardem's character, Uxbal is so intense and deep that only Bardem could have pull it out. The raw emotions he brings to the screen is to die for. Uxbal is not a righteous man but still we sympathize him. That's only because of Bardem's power house performance. I'm glad that he at least won at Cannes.

This is a complete different piece than Inarritu's previous creations, which all dealt with multiple narratives. Here, he tries to dig up at basic level. I won't go much into plot to avoid spoilers.

The best part of the movie is its metaphors. Cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto has worked as a genius here. He succeeds portraying Uxbal, his thoughts, emotions visually to the scree. That was achieved by grainy saturated images, changing aspect ratio and a lot more. I'm sure I would find many new things on second watch. It was fascinating that how Prieto and Inarritu decided to make 'Metaphysical' element of the movie to be presented in 'realistic or 'believable' way because that's Uxbal's reality. That's the way he sees the world around him. The title name also shares a 'biutiful' metaphor in the movie.

I have always been fan of Inarritu's movies. He manages to portray his characters in grey shades and the way he deals with interactions between many characters in a movie is just fascinating. Visual appeal has always been a great deal in his movies thanks to Prieto.

Definitely one of the bests of last year and I say this again, Bardem was the best of the lot in Best Actor nods.

It's not the best work of Inarritu but I can sense that it's the most.

'passionate' work by Inarritu.