Biutiful

Biutiful (2010
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Starring Javier Bardem.

83rd Oscars - 2 Nominations: Best Foreign Film, Best Actor (Javier Bardem).

It's hard to say what Biutiful is really about. I can tell you that the plot involves a man living in Barcelona after he finds out he has cancer. It deals with his family -- two children and bipolar wife/ex-wife. It shows his work, which deals with the immigrant underground workforce (Chinese factory workers and African street-hawkers). It even deals with his ability to communicate with ghosts, as tangential as it is. In short, it's a beautifully done film, but it's hard to pin down what it's trying to say or what to take away from it.

I often feel that films from Spanish-speaking countries (Biutiful is from a Mexican director) are speaking a different cinematic language than I understand. They deal with narrative and meaning in a foreign way compared to what I am used to. I know this sounds obvious, but I've been watching French and Italian and even Russian films for two semesters now and with those, I'm able to grasp what the filmmaker is trying to do. With recent Spanish films -- not just Biutiful but also the work of directors like the great Pedro Almodovar and even Guillermo del Toro (in his less Hollywood-based work) -- I get the distinct feeling that I'm missing out on understanding what is significant.

Maybe I'm too American in my viewing expectations in that I expect a film to say something, rather than just handle big ideas, which this film certainly does beautifully. Letting go of that expectation, let me say that I was impressed by this film's portrayal of love, life, and death. There's a scene that sticks in my mind in which Bardem pauses while walking home at twilight, and looks up to see a flock of birds fluttering this way and that against the darkening sky. Birds are often the symbol of the soul, so perhaps this scene is saying that how an individual makes peace with guilt, pain, and loss relates to their soul.

What made this film worth watching was Javier Bardem's performance. He is the heart and soul of the film. His solemn face and gravelly voice keeps the film from dropping into abstraction. He is an anchor amongst all the film's emotions and ideas. It's easy to see why this was the Oscar nominated performance of the movie. Overall, largely because of Bardem, I thought there was something haunting about this film -- something I can't pin down, which makes it all the more mysterious and memorable.