Review: Biutiful

Believe it or not, early in his career Javier Bardem was known for his smouldering good looks, and not his outstanding performances; he didn't even get credited for being in No News From God (an underrated gem of a film starring Penelope Cruz). In the last decade, that's all changed, and his latest Oscar-nominated performance in Biutiful is no exception, a movie seemingly made for someone who can entrance an audience just by his presence.

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, 21 Grams) has a penchant for examining the less glamorous aspects of the human condition and finding incredible beauty in it, in the send of a flower that forces its way through cracked pavement to produce a small, startling bloom.

In Biutiful, Uxbal (Bardem) is a man doing what he can to care for his family, a middle man on the edge of legality and realities. Uxbal sees what most of us don't: people struggling to make a living in sweatshops, selling knockoffs on the street, and even the souls of the recently passed. He makes a living from those he tries to help, and the irony does not quite competely escape him. When Uxbal gets unwelcome news, it seems every decision in his life is coming back to haunt him, from helping the employers of illegal immigrants find work, to his schizophrenic ex trying to return to the family she abandoned.

Another actor might turn Uxbal into an self-absorbed cad or worse, a self-pitying one. Bardem however, is quite adept at managing to play fully dimensional characters, from the unconventional Romeo Juan Antonio in Vicky Cristina Barcelona to the poet with a death wish in The Sea Inside, and much, more more. The list of nominations and wins for his performances are so extensive, it would be pointless to list them here. Needless to say, Bardem defty manages to bring a simmering energy to a quiet film.

Biutiful has a pace that will challenge some viewers, and the action is so understated it cannot be recommended for those who don't enjoy character studies. But watching Bardem and how Uxbal handles the situations he finds himself in, it is impossible to dismiss Biutiful. Watching it as a character study, it's no surprise Bardem's and Iñárritu's work has managed to earn more Oscar nominations.