“Biutiful” is a relentlessly grim, borderline depressing, but ultimately rewarding picture boasts yet another remarkable, Oscar-caliber performance from the versatile Javier Bardem (Oscar-winner for the 2007 Coen brothers “No Country for Old Men”).
Bardem, who plays a dying middle-aged man, who seeks redemption in his wish to leave human legacy for his two young children, dservedly received a Best Actor nomination.
Having made two big-budget, star-driven Hollywood films (“21 Grams” with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts and the Oscar-nominated “Babel”), the talented Mexican director Alexandro Gonzales Innaritu is back to his origins with a smaller, more intimate, Spanish speaking drama, “Biutiful,” which recalls in several ways his stunning feature debut, “Amores Perros.”
As co-written by Innaritu, “Biutiful” is the story of a tragic hero, an ordinary man named Uxbal, who is in a state of rapid decline, or free fall. For reasons that are not made entirely clear, Uxbal is connected with the afterlife—he senses the real danger of his imminent death and knows what its impact would be on his family.
The narrative is punctuated by periodic visits to his doctors, upon being informed that he suffers from terminal cancer and might have only a few months (or weeks) to live. Innaritu asks us viewers: How do you handle such a dreadful piece of information? How do you restructure the rest of your life?