Friday, January 28, 2011

The work of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has never been a ray of light to brighten the darkness of your day. He drags his viewers down the oft times grime-covered paths of human emotions and the end destination is not always the prettiest place. Amores Perros was a brilliant introduction to the twisting multi-layered narratives that he has become so masterful at portraying, but also the grim color palette and even grimmer voice he so easily emits. His works since have touched upon the various dark spots of the human condition - death (21 Grams) and loneliness (Babel) - and Biutiful is no different. Working without co-writer Guillermo Arriaga, who was the first to eschew the interweaving storylines the pair have become so well known for, Gonzalez Inarritu chooses to focus intensely on the final days of Uxbal (Javier Bardem), and his choice to contain his narrative scope this go around is all for the better. Biutiful is a tragic tale of a man put through life’s ringer, but in focusing on his plight, Gonzalez Inarritu is able to showcase the way we as human’s act in order just to get by.

Review - Biutiful

The film revolves around the daily life of Javier Bardem’s Uxbal, a dead-broke father of two, who’s cobbled together a handful of less-than-legal jobs in order to get by on a daily basis. On the side, Uxbal shamefully takes money for his ability to speak with the recently departed. Gonzalez Inarritu’s camera and story, bereft of the weight of interlinking storylines, zooms in on the daily rhythms and characters that flow through Uxbal’s life and the way in which he interacts. Through these interactions we see a broad cast of characters (the Chinese immigrants Uxbal helps find work, the Chinese factory owners with which Uxbal bargains for work, his dead-beat brother, his party-girl ex-wife with which his feelings still linger) and through Uxbal’s eyes we are able to better understand what they do to get by each and every day. The streets of Barcelona, so cold and soaked with Gonzalez Inarritu’s signature color scheme, are not always a happy place, but there’s moments of joy within each day and that’s the reward we as humans struggle for.

The film dips deeply in to an almost dirge-like parade of sorrow for Uxbal and all he’s connected to - Uxbal finds out he’s going to die, his closest friend is sent to prison, his ex-wife continues to be a terrible mother - but Gonzalez Inarritu buffs it with a shine of absolute realism. Uxbal is not entirely a saint or entirely a sinner, he’s just a man attempting to live his life and do the best he can by others. There’s a moment near the end of the film where you really think it’s going to end up being an utter tragedy, but it thankfully levels out, and when the film poetically comes to a conclusion, I wasn’t mired in sadness and depression, but filled with a sliver of hope.

The film, in an attempt to completely invest itself in to the life of Uxbal runs slowly at times, but the deep focus on his character pays off in the end. Everything he does seems completely true of his character. And when the final credits roll and Uxbal’s fate is finally exposed, every emotion coursing through my body felt completely and totally earned. If Gonzalez Inarritu’s shift from widely-aimed ensemble pieces to this beautiful capturing of a single man’s life is the future of his filmmaking, I for one can’t wait to see what happens next.

- Noah Sanders -



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