Biutiful

 | Director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful, which features a powerhouse performance from Javier Bardem in the lead role, is not the kind of film that would make Spain’s tourist bureau happy. It’s a demimonde view of back alleys, sleazy nightclubs and people who live in the shadows. If there weren’t a brief shot of the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, in fact, this could be any rundown urban backwater, filled with civilization’s detritus. 

The film's main character Uxbal (played by Bardem) has a lot on his plate. The small-time Barcelona crook acts as a go-between for Chinese sweatshop owners who manufacture cheap knockoff handbags that are made by slave-labor Asian immigrants and then peddled on the street by undocumented Africans. Uxbal’s also a psychic who claims to commune with the recently deceased and a single father to two small children he’s raising because his ex-wife is an irresponsible, bipolar party girl.

Then there’s this: Uxbal is dying of cancer and desperate to get his affairs in order.

This is where Biutiful (the title refers to the misspelling of the word “beautiful” by one of Uxbal’s children) also becomes the heartbreaking story of a flawed man with a sense of conscience — Uxbal exploits the labor of the undocumented, but also sympathizes with them — who’s also a warm and loving father. Bardem gives one of those performances that is totally without compromise and utterly lived in, a performance that won him best actor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Alternating between bouts of tenderness, anger, depression and introspection, he creates a thoroughly human and believable character. Whether arguing with his ex, snuggling with his kids or threatening his sleazy brother, Bardem is a powerhouse of mixed signals and emotions. It’s simply another great, and complex, piece of work from one of the world’s great film actors.