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MOVIE REVIEW
Biutiful
A Look At Life From The Elysian Side
Javier Bardem as Uxbal in "Biutiful", directed by
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Roadside Attractions
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Friday, January 28, 2010
The very first image of "Biutiful", Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest film,
is of an adult hand and a child hand. There's a ring on a finger.
The ring is the focus. Its ownership changes hands. This image
perfectly sums up "Biutiful", a stirring, melancholic look at transition and
death, and everlasting afterlife.
The next scene shows Uxbal (Javier Bardem). He's preternaturally handsome.
His hair looks like a lion's mane. There's snow. And trees.
Uxbal is treated to a sound effects exhibition by another man who looks younger
than he. It's the most beautiful scene in Mr. Iñárritu's fourth film.
As life would have it however, Uxbal lives in agony in Spain. He's dying
of prostate cancer. He has two kids, an estranged wife and he's involved
in illegal drug trading and the housing of Chinese immigrants in a sweatshop.
The description is grim, as is the film, but "Biutiful", a title referenced
about two-thirds of the way through this epic, disjointed drama, is worthwhile
viewing only for two reasons. One is for Javier Bardem's 2010 Cannes Film
Festival-winning and Oscar-nominated performance. The other is for Mr.
Bardem's performance.
"Biutiful", also nominated this week for an Oscar in the best foreign language
film category, is the first film the director has done that focuses exclusively
on one story. "Biutiful" is Mr. Iñárritu's most personal film to date.
If "Enter The Void" was a trip through the afterlife, and
"Hereafter" was a
prologue that inquired about what happens in the afterlife, "Biutiful" is a
jarring, unfiltered journey through life and death. Elemental, weighty and
coarse, the film is involving but rigidly unsentimental and raw at times.
Mr. Inarritu adopts a visceral, blunt force trauma approach in his work ("Amores
Perros", "21 Grams", "Babel")
but patinas of warmth and tenderness emerge every now and again, allowing us to
appreciate the richness of Uxbal's life as well as its complications.
Uxbal is indeed a complex figure, and Mr. Bardem, in the best work of his
career, gives him the deepest dimensions and facets I've seen from an actor on
the big screen in several years. Acting from the inside out, with immense
physicality balanced and restrained by the cerebral torment of a man in his last
days, Mr. Bardem deserves the Oscar. His Uxbal is a magnificent
masterstroke of acting. There's no trace of artifice or exaggeration.
Watch Mr. Bardem in the film's best scene, with the character Bea (played by Ana
Wagener). They sit at a table and have a very important conversation.
Mr. Bardem's reaction is played so very well. Mr. Iñárritu's camera allows
us to generously behold Ms. Wagener as she says something directed as much to
the audience as to Uxbal. Ms. Wagener's work, albeit brief, should not be
discounted, for it is the film's other stand-out work.
Several other scenes, including one in a nightclub, show Mr. Bardem at his
finest. His work is unforgettable. At every opportunity he makes the
acting counterpart in each scene better.
Far from perfect, Uxbal puts family first, and not just his own. It could
be said that Uxbal is a modern-day Jesus, and though he's never quite exalted
that way, there are scenes that possess unmistakable allegorical qualities.
He's no martyr or saint, nor is he lionized as such. The film's
matter-of-fact treatment of occasionally disturbing subject matter
understandably suggests that Uxbal may not be a mere mortal.
Though the focus in "Biutiful" is on one story, the director can't resist prior
techniques or habits. His story glimpses a few interrelated matters if
only as a fleeting respite from the wrenching anguish of the protagonist.
Still, several scenes beyond the ambit of Uxbal's affairs should have been
excised from a film that is too long, and almost indulgently so. Despite
the enduring gloom and merciless length, "Biutiful" exudes overwhelming love and
poignancy as it maturely observes relationships between fathers and children,
past and present, and among different groups of parents and children.
The film's faults lie primarily in its diversions and in punctuating key moments
with needless visual effects, which when juxtaposed against the film's sterling
acting makes a mockery of it, overshadowing its impact. In these instances
"Biutiful" betrays its own single-mindedness and is at its lowest ebb.
Regardless of its peaks and valleys, the film will alienate moviegoers looking
for silver linings. The film's journey however, is a triumph in its own
right. "Biutiful" is a revelatory poem that revisits the consequences of
choices made in a life. The film's dialogue is replete with irony,
contemplation and an honest, adult rendering of life's demands, challenges and
relationships.
As grim as this drama is, you can't help but invest in Uxbal, and Mr. Bardem
portrays him as a compelling figure of isolation and torment. Uxbal knows
himself so well, and his estranged, bipolar wife Marambra (Maricel Álvarez)
still believes in a shared future despite all that has transpired between them.
Ms. Álvarez is effective, soulful and dynamic in her interactions with Mr.
Bardem, which are often tinged with hope and joy as well as pain, cultivated by
vivid memories of a better past.
"Biutiful" is a dour trademark typical of the director, who pours all of the
feeling, mood and weight of the world into this big screen experience.
Overall, the film isn't easy or comfortable viewing, and it's not Mr. Iñárritu's
best or most disciplined film, but it is worth watching.
With: Hanaa Bouchaib, Guillermo Estrella, Eduard Fernández, Cheikh Ndiaye,
Diaryatou Daff, Taisheng Cheng, Jin Luo, George Chibuikwem Chukwuma, Lang Sofia
Lin, Yodian Yang, Tuo Lin, Xueheng Chen, Xiaoyan Zhang, Ye Ailie, Xianlin Bao,
Rubén Ochandiano.
"Biutiful"
is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for disturbing images, some sexual content, nudity and
drug use. The film is in the Spanish language with English subtitles. The film's
running time is two hours and 28 minutes.
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