Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Starring. Javier Bardem
Sometimes life is just too good. Sometimes you walk down the street thinking, "Gee, the world is really a great place and I'm happy to be a part of it." If you find yourself afflicted with such unfortunate thoughts, I urge you to take a nice big dose of Biutiful, a film guaranteed to remind you that the world is a horribly, disgracefully, absurdly, inexplicably mean, angry, heaping pile of shit. Fortunately however, the film is not. (A pile of shit, that is). In fact, despite it's depressing nature, it's utterly captivating; a deeply moving portrait of the often ignored darkness and desperation of life. It's a film that should be seen (even if you can only manage just the once), because it universally and realistically addresses themes of death and spirituality and love and survival and redemption; all of those big ideas that are constantly looming over us wishing we gave them the attention they deserve.
These themes are portrayed through the story of Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a (mostly) single father with a strong connection to the spiritual world. As his own health begins to fail, he goes through what any person would when faced with the harsh reality of their own mortality. He struggles to find peace within himself and with those around him as his time slowly runs out. But this is no "Bucket List" or "Last Holiday" (which, in case you've forgotten, is that movie where Queen Latifah gets diagnosed with a terminal illness and goes on one last holiday with LL Cool J. I know, I too wish I hadn't brought it up). His world is a harsh one, living on the margins of society in Barcelona, surviving on various illegal dealings, and desperate to support his two children despite his conflicted relationship with their bipolar mother. Is it possible to make things right in such a complicated world and does it even matter once we are gone? It's a difficult question and one that Uxbal must face before it is too late.
I can't deny the hold that this film had over me, and as difficult as it was at times to watch, I felt that somewhere in the story there was an undercurrent of hope. Perhaps this was in the father's unwavering dedication and love for his children, a part played with such depth and force by Javier Bardem, you'll find it hard to believe he has ever acted as anything else. There were several supernatural moments in the film that I found to be a bit superfluous as everything else was so grounded in a gritty, seedy realism. Other than that, the dramatic elements of the story and the conflicts of each character entwine effortlessly at the guiding hands of writer/director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who proves that he can still tackle major themes without the use of an ensemble of characters and stories. The simplicity and the focus of one man's journey is really what sets Biutiful apart from Inarritu's other works and makes it a truly engrossing film to watch.
