1. Mrtruegrit2288

   Feb 12, 2012

   10

   The film is painful there's no doubt about about that but Inarritu's genius is it's ability to captivate, to grab on and not let go and to make you feel every moment of pain desperation. The cast is flawless, and Bardem is without a doubt, the single greatest actor that Spain has produced .… Expand

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2. DrTathata

   Jul 16, 2011

   10

   It was St Paul who claimed that the good that he would was not what he did, but the evil that he wouldn't. In a way, that true statement of the potential for error in the best of our intentions is the strange attractor that drives this beautiful, exquisitely painful story. Put yourself in the man Uxbal's shoes and ask yourself--what would it feel like to be intricately enmeshed such a complex web, and yet have so few moves available with which to solve your problem? "The Universe will take care of your children", he is told, and although it may be true, it is cold comfort for any dying parent whose last thoughts cluster around the question, what will become of them without my love and care? With all of his dying preoccupations rolled into one overwhelming question, the one person in his life capable of attending to his children when he is gone stands gazing at the flight departure list, her baby on her back, and every penny he owned in her bag-- what will she do, and why does she do it? What is it that drives the choice that she makes? Is it love? Is it duty? What does she owe this man? And why would she choose to deny everything she had longed for? Difficult questions, often without answers, abound. This is a thought provoking film, true and unflinchingly real in it's study of the characters involved. For the world as we find it is not black and white but infinite shades of light and dark, and it is rare that anyone is wholly good or wholly bad, or even wholly unsympathetic. And don't think you can always predict what someone will do, before they are put to the test. Depending on the perspective of the others in our lives, we are each of us both heros and villains in one way or another. In the final analysis, nobody gets out alive. You can't take it with you. All roads end in the grave. Life is a lesson about loss, and all striving is futile. The lucky ones who fight against the dying of the light think of those they love as their cares drop one by one from their cold dead fingers.… Collapse

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3. mperezsimons

   Apr 17, 2011

   9

   Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is known for his signature multi-protagonist plots introduced in his death trilogy, which included "Amores Perros," "21 Grams," and "Babel." In "Biutiful," however, he zooms in on one character, Uxbal, a single father from Barcelona, facing terminal cancer. Uxbal is a fascinating character with many good intentions that don't always translate into good deeds. While he truly cares for people (his brother even calls him the Dalai Lama), he actually makes a living from an operation where illegal Senegalese immigrants sell on the streets the counterfeited bags and pirated CDs produced in a sweatshop by a group of frightened Chinese who sleep on the floor of a locked basement.
   
   So yes, Uxbal is a complicated hero, not perfect by any means, but because of Bardem's earnest performance you feel Uxbal's pain, and he also wins you over with the love he so tenderly expresses for his soon-to-be fatherless children, and for the father he never met. And that's what the movie is truly about: parenthood, how people, no matter their nationality, are always concerned with giving their kids a better life. You'll find that most of the characters (from Uxbal, to the police officer, to the sweatshop owner, to the main Senegalese immigrant) are trying to do what's best for their kids. But are their choices moral or even legal? Morality is a big theme here, and the movie will leave you questioning even your own.
   
   To appreciate this film you need to understand Iñárritu's style--bold and bleak and confrontational. He wants to shock you, make you angry, remove you from your comfortable place so you can experience some of the realities millions of people face everyday. Allow him to. "Biutiful" is worth watching because of the many layers of the story, the stellar performances by Javier Bardem and Maricel Å Expand

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4. nutterjr

   Feb 24, 2011

   7

   Tackling immigration and the associated social implications this film is great because the lead actor Bardem is one of the best actors alive and Inarritu keeps making really biutiful movies...… Expand

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5. Shiira

   Mar 17, 2011

   6

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The first time you see somebody peeing blood, that's cause for moviegoer sympathy. A second time, however, well, that's just showing off. Outside of Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist", it's not every movie which dares to feature graphic, and in this case, gratuitous urination. (Willem Dafoe pisses blood just once.) Since "Biutiful" is, ultimately, a horror movie in two senses, it's interesting how this visceral grotesquerie corresponds to the non-genre side of the categorical divide. Not only does Uxbal(Javier Bardem) piss a weak arcing stream of dark brown liquid, he also pisses in his pants. Cancer's effects has left him incontinent. Very soon, the low-level criminal will be needing to wear extra-protection. Needless to say, the filmmaker shows Bardem in a diaper, because that's how miserabilists like him roll. The filmmaker challenges Bardem to find the dignity in his indignity. The filmmaker makes sure that his audience feels something for this dying man, leaving no stone unturned for this father of two children, a boy and a girl, whom he exploits unmercifully as a point of manipulation for the movie's life and death matters. He banks on the great reservoirs of feelings that most moviegoers possess for the death-affected young. To the miserabilist, an emotion like joy can only be applied fleetingly and ironically, as a temporal reprieve from a permeated mis-en-scene of unremitting fatalism, the film's prevailing diegetic expression, thus when resumed, right about the time Ana blows out her celebratory candle, will turn out to be all the more devastating, this resignation of hope, just like how the filmmaker planned it. He wants to take all the wind out of our sails. He knows, and we know, that Ana's eleventh birthday is going to be her last happy one for awhile. Because the fix is in, where nothing positive can arise from these tragic circumstances, due to the filmmaker's aesthetics, Marambra(Marciel Alvarez), Uxbel's ex-wife, we know, will continue to struggle with her bipolar condition, even though Uxbel is counting on her to be a full-time mother. From the very start, we know she's out of the running for full custody of Ana and Pedro. For the most part, the filmmaker sets her up to be a misfit parent. The screenplay never allows for a scene where Uxbel informs this cocaine-addled woman about his disease. Oblivious to Uxbel's bloody pee, Marambara isn't given a fair shake in the redemption department. If she knew the whole story, maybe the bad mother would have the impetus to change. While his condition gets worse and worse, the film invites you to hate Marambra, who is predisposed towards inter-family infidelities and child abuse, dealbreakers both, but entirely avoidable had full disclosure been practiced. With nowhere else to turn, the de factor orphans are entrusted to an almost complete stranger. In the tradition of noble, self-sacrificing black women, Ige(Diaryatu Daff), a Senegalese woman whom Uxbel knows only by association, is supposed to jump at the chance to look after a white man's children, but she subverts this cliched attitude toward non-white females(which has the effect of complimenting the one-man United Nations for his colorblindness) by returning to Africa with the money originally allocated for her charges' welfare. Is it the filmmaker's intentions to associate Ige with the story that Tito tells Uxbel about the supposedly loyal tiger who bites the face of its trusting owner. Is "Biutiful" that unfair? Because Uxbel is such a nice guy, we lose sight of the fact that he's a profiteer, complicit to the exploitation which leads to the sweatshop gassing and the sidewalk vendors(Ige's husband included) being deported back home. In reality, Ige owes him nothing. Last seen at the airport, for a split second, we think that Ige had changed her mind, but the voice we hear back at the dark apartment is of Uxbel's own making. For a split second, we think Uxbel will die with peace of mind, knowing that his children will be taken care of. But alas, a relatively happy ending is not in the filmmaker's vocabulary. Uxbel dies with his children's welfare unresolved. As aforementioned, "Biutiful" is a horror movie. Not in the genre sense where Uxbel has the sixth sense and can see dead people, but rather it's the horror of watching a man die slow and hard.… Expand

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6. cinemaquote

   Jan 30, 2011

   5

   How can talents such as Iñarritu and Del Toro plus Bardem's breathtaking performance amount to such a painful experience for the viewer. Someone described this as 3 bad movies in 1. I cannot say that much, yet I strongly urge Iñarritu to reflect on what grasped us in Amores Perros or even Babel and make movies for us, not only for his viewing pleasure. Bring on the magic! @cinemaquote… Expand

   • 3 of 3 users found this helpful
7. Humprt

   Jun 5, 2011

   2

   Very very slow and monotone. If you want to feel depressed without a real purpose, try this movie. Visually not bad, overall, I see a missed opportunity.… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful

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