Biutiful presents complex character and story

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful, which was nominated for multiple Oscars, is a complex film that delves into the multi-faceted life of Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a mysterious man struggling to find a balance between his demanding work in the impoverished Barcelona underworld while tending to his familial needs and searching for salvation.

Family man · The film zeroes in on the character’s family life and his struggles with his bipolar, alcoholic wife and his uncanny ability to read the minds of dead people. - Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

When the audience first meets him, Uxbal is in the midst of raising two children alongside his dysfunctional, alcoholic, bipolar wife (Maricel Ålvarez) who struggles with the pressures of motherhood and her desire to extend her youth further than adulthood allows. Uxbal splits his time between aiding African street vendors and finding locations to sell their illegal merchandise, overseeing a sweatshop of Chinese refugees, supporting his struggling family and living with a serious and painful illness.

On top of his responsibilities, Uxbal also has the ability to read the minds of the deceased, which he uses to grant families closure in grieving for their lost ones. To say that Uxbal is attempting to balance the lives of five different men is an understatement. But, to argue that he is doing so in a stoic and unsympathetic manner, which he seemingly tries to exude to the world around him, is untrue.

The film does not begin with any contextual explanation. Instead, the audience is thrown into the middle of Uxbal’s life.  Slowly, as the film continues, the pieces come together. This affords the audience a deeper understanding of both Bardem’s character and what his life entails.

Uxbal’s natural ambiguity and complex struggles renders the film unpredictable and grants the audience the ability to let its imagination and curiosity run rampant.

Full of sadness, sickness, darkness and death, Biutiful is not an easy film to watch. Uxbal’s illness, diagnosed in the middle of the film, serves as motivation for him to accept the world around him instead of constantly trying to impose a strict and magisterial hand upon his children and the people in his life. It is not until the middle of the film that we see Uxbal genuinely smile, alongside his family.

Iñárritu creates a film that unfolds with patience and realism. There is no narration, no obvious plot action, but a creative angle used to tell the story of an alienated man who wants to help the world around him but is unsure of how to do so. The director generously uses wide-angle shots, which contributes to the creativity of the cinematography, distorting conventional perspectives of the film’s various landscapes. The many close-ups of Bardem’s face make his pain, confusion and loyalty disconcertingly visceral to those watching.

Bardem embraces his role wholeheartedly, making us feel his dejection throughout the film’s significant length. The cold strength of his eyes makes it difficult to remind ourselves that this isn’t Bardem’s actual life. Bardem perfectly exudes the emotional intensity that Uxbal’s role demands.

Anyone with an interest in character complexity will find Uxbal a worthwhile soul to explore. Despite meaning well, the contradictions of his life and the discomfort he feels in revealing his humanism to the outer world creates a barrier between his logical side and his emotional counterpart.

Biutiful forces its audience to wonder whether or not the pure intentions of a man outweigh what most would interpret as harsh behavior. Although Uxbal offers food and shelter for Chinese refugees, their living conditions and quality of life are dismal. He hands out money and protects others, but remains a stern, unbreakable and ultimately vulnerable man.

Regardless of whether we can ever empathize with Uxbal or find our own meaning within his story, most will likely agree that Bardem’s performance is undeniably award-worthy.

The film is fascinating, and trying to label it a “good” or “bad” picture is a difficult task. For some, the intense subject matter and the complexity of Biutiful might be deterrents. If you have two and a half hours to spend watching the film, and an hour to spend thinking about it, watch it. If you are unable or unwilling to devote such time, don’t bother.