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T O P I C R E V I E W
BaftaBaby
Posted - 12/24/2010 : 00:02:59 Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu has produced some remarkable work in Amores Perros, 28 Grams, and most recently Babel. As director and co-writer of this latest he continues never to shy away from the complex and brutal layers of the lives of people in trouble.
Biutiful is set in Barcelona but weaves a tale that implicates several cultures, each caught in a downward spiral of poverty and its associated choices for survival. Some are more successful than others.
The focus is on Uxbal, played by Javier Bardem with what poets call quiet desperation. Like so many people, he really doesn't know what to do for the best. Unlike so many, he can admit it. Perhaps it's the newly discovered threat to his health that allows him to step back from the crap he's covered his life with. Perhaps the crap is just too thick to ignore.
He's a dad of two, granted custody over an emotionally disturbed wife whose own fairly predictable destructive choices render her truly unfit as a parent. The embers of love just about cast a beam of heat within this family, but their prospects sure ain't good.
And then Uxbal learns of the horrific cruelty his actions have caused. It's the kind of social shock shoved at us by Arthur Miller in All My Sons.
I��rritu's and Bardem's dual portrayal of Uxbal's personal story proves just the vehicle for the interdependence of people. In fact, without it, life isn't merely not biutiful, it's meaningless.
