Biutiful

Have you ever wondered about a character long after the film is over? Biutiful is one such film where the character goes beyond the realm of the film and lingers on for a long, long time. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful is a film where Javier Bardem doesn’t play a character, rather he becomes Uxbal and takes you on a journey that you thought cinema had become incapable of.

Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a hustler who has spent his entire life looking over his shoulders to stay above the water but is not bereft of principles. The middle man between illegal immigrants and profit mongering sweat shop owners, Uxbal has his hands full between managing business, taking care of cops and brining up two children in the absence of an estranged bipolar wife besides being a medium who converses with people stuck in afterlife. Uxbal learns that he is dying of cancer and decides to set things right for his children. He gets his wife back in spite of his reservations and even though the family is happy to be back together, his wife’s mood swings make his change his mind. With time slipping away Uxbal starts feeling the heat of death around the corner and just when he starts getting a grip on his plans….things go horribly wrong.

Iñárritu’s films are so deeply rooted in reality that you become a part of the proceedings instead of being a voyeur and Biutiful is no exception. Before you know it, a path leads to the grim reality of the streets that Uxbal walks on and you can’t escape the sorrow. But this is a world that we have seen far too many times in Iñárritu’s films. With Amores perros, 21 Grams and Babel behind us one can’t be blamed for almost giving up on Biutiful midway but it’s Javier Bardem’s towering performance that just doesn’t allow you to look away.

Many actors become characters but with Uxbal Javier Bardem just doesn’t create a character, he essentially embodies the persona to such an extent that you can’t really say who’s playing whom. Bardem is one of the foremost actors in the world today and rightfully so for never have you seen a life disintegrating right in front of your eyes as painfully as Bardem does with Uxbal. This isn’t an easy film to watch simply because Bardem gives everything that he has and plays it so naturally that you cringe at Uxbal’s pain and pity his predicament.

Like all Iñárritu films Biutiful too has parallel stories but this time around he concentrates more on one character rather than three that has become a motif in his films. The writing is a little drab and even though there are a multitude of characters Iñárritu keeps them at a distance choosing to concentrate solely on Uxbal. Who knows what the 138 minutes long Biutiful might have become had Iñárritu’s regular writer Guillermo Arriaga not been missing from the party. This slight departure notwithstanding Biutiful is essentially the same bleak film that Iñárritu has now become famous for. Is it because of the same team that Iñárritu collaborates with- cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and composer Gustavo Sanataolla- that his work has started looking dangerously similar? Or could it be that the three parallel stories converging has become his open secret much like an M. Night Shyamalan twist ending?

Biutiful is very much an Inarritu film replete with the same strong undercurrent and the signature Prieto camerawork and the familiar but haunting Sanataolla background score. This is a film that works more because of a character and the magic that is Javier Bardem’s acting more than anything else.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Cast: Javier Bardem

Written by: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone

Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Image: thehollywoodnews.com