Biutiful (2010)
Directed by Alejandro Iñárritu
Universal Pictures, 147 minutes, R (nudity, drug use, language)
In Spanish, Chinese, and Wolof with English subtitles
★★★★★
If you’d like to see Javier Bardem as you seldom have, revisit the 2010 film Biutiful. It was directed by the now-famous Alejandro Iñárritu. It didn’t do well at the box office, though Bardem garnered the first-ever Best Actor nomination for a performance entirely in Spanish.
Bardem’s star power aside, Biutiful faltered because its surfaces were anything but beautiful. It is set in the squalid side of Barcelona and follows the travails of Uxbal (Bardem). Capsule reviews call Uxbal a criminal, which is technically true, but he’s mainly crushed by circumstance and bad luck. He is the caregiver for two children as he is separated from his bipolar wife Maramba (Marciel Álvarez), who is also an alcoholic, prostitute, and pathological liar. To retain his shabby apartment and keep his kids barely fed, Uxbal works numerous schemes and hustles. He does some drug deliveries, recruits cheap labor for the semi-legal construction firm of his brother Tito, organizes unlicensed street sales in tourist areas staffed by illegal Senegalese immigrants, and secures work for equally illegal Chinese workers. He pays bribes in order to operate, but if he falls behind, protection is lifted. Nothing ever seems to go right for him.
Uxbal’s children are often tended by Ige (Diaryatou Daff) when he is on the street. When he’s late with a payment, the police round up as many Senegalese as they can catch, including Ige’s husband, who is slated for deportation. Uxbal tries to assuage his guilt by allowing Ige and her baby to stay in his apartment, but he is wracked by remorse for failing to take care of those collaborating in his schemes. An episode with Chinese workers goes even more tragically awry, and his sorrow further saps his sense of self-worth. The volcanic and unstable Marambra hovers about with a passel of promises she cannot keep, which touches off potential trauma for the kids. To top it off, Uxbal has terminal prostate cancer. How can he extend his life to make sure the children are taken care of? He's so desperate that he is persuaded by his friend Bea to try alternative healing methods that fall into the category of nostrums.
In other words, Biutiful is (mostly) an ironic title. Bardem is bedraggled, not a sexy hunk; Barcelona is a social underbelly, not a Mediterranean jewel; and the storyline is downbeat drama, not fairy tale redemption. Yet there is a reason why Bardem garnered an Oscar nomination and won several acting prizes, including a BAFTA trophy.* He plays Uxbal as a man deeply haunted by his mistakes. The film’s namesake beauty is actually Uxbal’s inner desire and character. Yes he lives on the wrong side of the law, but each time we see him fall we understand that he is sucked into a greater pool of societal corruption. In essence, it defines his world to such a degree that Uxbal’s better angels desert him one by one.
Alejandro Iñárritu won a Best Director Oscar in 2014 for the quirky Birdman, a film I really liked. In many ways, though, its offbeat comedic touches were something of a departure. Much of his work has been like Biutiful, psychological slices of the darker side of the human condition. Think of films such as Amore perros, 21 Grams, Babel, and The Revenant. The first three made up his “Trilogy of Death,” and the last, which also won a directorial Oscar, was a fairly brutal 19th century retelling of frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) set in the American West. If you know that film, you might recall that the ending features a revenant (ghost). Iñárritu paved the way for this in Biutiful. Pay attention to its prelude and final shots, which feature Uxbal’s father, an anti-Franco refugee.
Biutiful will leave you shaken, but there’s no escaping its raw power. What could be more tragic than a film about a man who would be good, but can’t be.
Rob Weir
*British Academy Film and Television Awards
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