By Scott Marks | SDUN Film Critic
The only trace of irony or sentiment to be found in “Biutiful” is contained in the title, a misspelling found in a hand scrawled refrigerator note posted by Uxbal’s (Javier Bardem) young daughter. How many times have you heard me moan about characterless filmmakers lacking the courage of their conviction to see a dark vision through to its logical and inescapably moribund conclusion? Writer, director Alejandro González Iñárritu wears sunglasses at night.
With “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams” and “Babel” to his credit, Iñárritu continues to display a talent for turning human tragedy into a means of finding unification and redemption. His jumbled, multi-character accounts slowly draw together their bands of otherwise unrelated individuals. We watch as storylines are intercut and siphoned into one core cause, say how many individuals a stray bullet impacts in “Babel.”
In “Biutiful,” the narrative is linear and the lives of many dependant on one. Uxbal is a sainted sinner, a devoted father of two who makes his living off drug peddling street vendors, a made man in the Barcelona underworld who finds himself caught in a power struggle between corrupt dealers and even more nefarious cops. Here’s a novel idea: To help keep everything clear, the subtitles come color-coded: Blue = Chinese, White = Spanish, etc.
On the saintly side, the borderline Christ figure tries his best to ensure the safety and comfort of a group of twenty-five illegal Asian immigrants he finds “employment” for at a local sweat shop. He is blessed with an otherworldly ability that enables him to pick up a few extra bucks on the side by conversing with fresh corpses who have yet to fully cross over.
When one of his vendors is put in jail, his initially reluctant wife Ige (Diaryatou Daff) is won over by Uxbal’s emotional strength and becomes a member of his extended flock. Unbeknownst to Uxbal his bi-polar wife (Maricel Álvarez) is carrying on an affair with her brother-in-law and all he can concentrate on is a recurring nightmare—a mysterious male figure stands in a snowy glade beckoning him to cross over -that keeps playing in his head. His premonition becomes a reality when both the doc and trusted family psychic give him no more than a few months to live.
There is this sublimely surreal moment of CGI artistry that I had to see again in order to believe. Uxbal continues to make his rounds, burdened with the fresh news of his pending mortality. Several knocks bring no answer, and as he recedes from the glass door Uxbal’s reflection is no longer in sync with his physical being, a subtle indication that he’s losing his identity as he prepares to make the transition.
Fans of the afterlife who couldn’t wait to see “Hereafter” or “Undertow” might well look at this as a cosmic capper. Other have called Iñárritu’s ideas soft, but he’s making a movie not constructing a theological treatise. At this point in time, his message of deliverance through darkness will no doubt bring comfort to a lot of people. And in spite of that I still like it.
“Biutiful”
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Written by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone
Starring: Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Guillermo Estrella and Diaryatou Daff
Rating: 4 Stars
