Javier Bardem is a great actor. Great actors seek challenges in almost every role, but Bardem may have overreached a little in "Biutiful," which opens here today. It's not that the role of the tragic Uxbal is too much for him, but that the entire film, and the confused direction of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, provide a canvas that is too muddled and muddied.
Set in Barcelona–and not the beautiful, charming part where Woody Allen placed "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"–"Biutiful" is a story of a man being beaten down by his world and his body, and is seeking relief from his pain. It's a powerful performance, and Bardem has an Oscar nomination for it, but the film and Bardem himself are not nearly as strong as they were in "No Country for Old Men," in which he played a cold-hearted killer.
He's not the same kind of character in this movie, though he is a criminal. Uxbal is an agent for a group that provides illegal immigrants to Barcelona employees, and one of his tasks involves collecting kickbacks from employers.
Uxbal also has prostate cancer, two young children and a wife, Maramba (Maricel Alvarez) who is in the throes of mental imbalance. Not a template for a happy home oir a happy work environment. Bardem is a terrific actor, and he keeps a viewer's attention. But why?
Biutiful opens today at the Plaza Frontenac
—Joe