Biutiful
Javier Bardem is a force of nature as Uxbal, the character at the center of “Biutiful.” Uxbal is a career criminal and father of two with his estranged wife, Malambra (Maricel Ãlvarez), who has bipolar disorder and zero mothering skills. With his brother, Tito (Eduard Fernández), Uxbal deals in black market goods and slave labor, making his money from the Chinese businessmen with whom he deals. But Uxbal is also terminally ill; he’s pissing blood and in excruciating pain. The doctor tells him he only has a couple of months to live.
Co-writer/director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu continues to master the same elliptical structure he has explored with “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel” in the heartbreaking “Biutiful.” Rather than follow multiple storylines that converge, however, “Biutiful” centers on Uxbal and explores the several strains of his life as he attempts to cope with his impending death. In a way, the film bears similarities to Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” in the ways it follows Uxbal as he tries to get his affairs in order for his children and to also do some good before he goes. But whereas Kurosawa’s film ended in hope, Inarritu’s is painful tragedy, as Uxbal tries and tries to do right by those for whose lives he is responsible but will ultimately fail every time. I take that back: It is less that he fails himself as it is those around him who fail him.
Inarritu is at his poetic and powerful best, both visually and aurally, in telling this tale (which moves between three different languages) as his longtime collaborators, Rodrigo Prieto (cinematographer) and Gustavo Santaolalla (composer), bring their respective gifts to this unforgettable film. Still, in the end it is Bardem who makes this film unforgettable in a layered and lonely performance that rivals (and in many ways surpasses) not only the triumph of “The Sea Inside” but also his Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men.” You can see much from both very different roles in Uxbal. The result is a performance for the ages and a film you won’t soon forget.
