Movie Review: Biutiful

Biutiful is the latest film by acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro González Iñarritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel). His latest exposition of life and death roars, with the great performance of  lead actor Javier Bardem and his portrayal of a down on his luck Barcelonan.

We meet our melancholy protagonist Uxbal caught in the dark underbelly of Barcelona. Uxbal is flawed -- He is a loving father who keeps his family afloat from his bipolar wife. He makes ends meet by brokering deals with the police by letting undocumented African peddlers sell their goods on the streets. Plus, he is the liaison of the collaboration between the African and Chinese immigrants in a scheme of manufacturing and selling knock-off goods to the rich districts of Barcelona.

Each scene is comparable to a poetic line, revealing little by little of the love and guilt of our doomed protagonist. Early on we learn of Uxbal's fate -- Diagnosed with cancer and only having a few months to live is just the beginning of our sympathetic interaction with Bardem. He hides his money in a pair of socks from his favorite soccer club, Espanyol. The scene is quick, and for viewers, minuscule, but it sets up a great example of the relationship he has with his brother. Espanyol is forever the little brother to the giant Barcelona club run by the more flamboyant team. Uxbal and his older brother play into a similar role.

Uxbal is a spiritual man and has the gift of seeing spirits after an untimely death. He uses his spirituality to guide souls to the other world, which plays out in an early scene. Three school age children are in a terrible accident, and the father of one asks Uxbal to speak to his son and to find out if he passed to the other world. For others, Uxbal is a fake and preys on grieving families. The truth is only revealed to us, the audience.

Uxbal's family is in disarray. He and his older brother agree to the terms of selling his father's burial spot. An immigrant himself, his father left Spain to go to Mexico in search of work, only to die from disease. Never meeting his father, he views his corpse and learns that his father died without any regrets. Uxbal's older brother is the kind of father figure that no one would ever want or to have had.

The fantastical part of the story is portrayed as humanly as possible through the spiritual eyes of Uxbal. It is not grim, nor a utopian tale, but a flawed one, like the spelling of its title, Biutiful.

Juan Letona writes in his free time for his own blog and as part of the Bitmob community. You can also find him on Twitter.