Writer: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Year of Release: 2010
Alejandro González Iñárritu is perhaps best known for creating dramas with multiple narratives majestically weaving in and out of one another without sacrificing character development. Biutiful however does not follow suit. The film focuses solely on Uxbal, a divorced father trying to leave his mark in the world as he passes through it. Sounds pretty esoteric right? Right.
The truth is I was really excited about this film, I love the director, I love the premise, and Javier Bardem is a pretty cool guy too. Unfortunately this film takes far too many missteps for me to simply turn a blind eye. As transcendent as this film is it simply lacks proper direction, it takes stylistic shifts and turns and takes risks yet doesn't reap any reward. There is not a single moment in the film where the viewer feels guided into the life of Uxbal. There is nothing which unfolds, nothing which develops, everything is thrown together in this big sad cosmic slop.
Switching from neo-realism, to more traditional melodrama, to (on occaision) straight up horror fantasy (There appeared to be a very vague and unexplained subplot about Uxbal being some kind of soul whisperer type dude, yeah, I don't even-). It isn't that these sequences or styles aren't crafted well, it's really more of a problem that they just don't fit in, yet Iñárritu keeps throwing them into the crockpot together without any transitions or explanations. I guess the word I'm looking for is indulgence. There are too many moments in Biutiful where it seems nobody has a clue exactly 'what' or 'why' besides Iñárritu himself.
If I had to choose standouts though, I would definitely refer to Javier Bardem's broken man performance, it really is quite harrowing, though it merely plays as the duct tape barely holding this shattered piece of a film together. The flaws are still very evident.
This isn't necessarily a bad film. There are a lot of wonderfully heartfelt sentiments and ideas within Biutiful, don't get me wrong, and there are some rather powerful scenes which will grip the viewer and leave one rather emotionally drained. Unfortunately though many of the ideas in this film are not given the care and attention they deserve to manifest into their full potential, which really is quite grand. Whilst others soar in their fully realized beauty. Overall the film plays like a series of episodic ideas, could-have-been's and WTFs. A relatively enjoyable experience which is however, on the whole, underwhelming.
Overall rating: 5.4
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