Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu brings out the dark sides of bustling Barcelona through his beautiful film Biutiful. The film depicts the inner beauty of a faulty individual Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a middleman for the Chinese sweatshop owners and African-origin peddlers. Fake merchandise produced in the sweatshop is sold on the street by the African-origin peddlers. Uxbal makes money out of these illegal activities as a middleman. However, he is not a con man. His heart reaches out to the poor Chinese laborers and African immigrants who live in Barcelona illegally, he finds works for them, and in the process, he makes some money for his living. Biutiful portrays Uxbal and his life, which is threatened by his impending death due to terminal prostate cancer.
The film starts with a whisper between Uxbal and his daughter Ana about the diamond ring that his father presented to his pregnant mother before leaving Francoist Spain for Mexico. Uxbal is about to hand it over to Ana. In a dream sequence, he meets his father, whom he has never met in real-life, in a wintry environment. Uxbal lives in a middle-class apartment in Barcelona with his son Mateo and daughter Ana. He is separated from his estranged wife Marambra (Maricel Alvarez), who suffers from alcoholism, bipolar disorder, and clinical depression. She is also a promiscuous woman who works as a prostitute and even offers her service to Uxbal’s own brother Tito. Tito, who works at a construction business, is wealthier than Uxbal.
Uxbal also works as a psychic medium to the dead and helps the deceased in passing on their messages and rebirth. His life suddenly gets filled with impenetrable darkness when he is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. He has only a very few months to live in this world. He begins taking chemotherapy at a clinic but leaves it shortly at the advice of his friend and alternative healer Bea. In the meantime, the African-origin peddlers start peddling drugs as well on the street. In spite of Uxbal’s regular bribes to the police officials, the drug peddlers are arrested brutally. One of the peddlers Ekweme is deported back to Senegal. Uxbal offers money to Ekweme’s wife Ige and gives her shelter with her son in his apartment. Uxbal briefly reconciles with his wife Marambra but she misbehaves with Mateo and tortures him. She is denied custody of her children.
The Chinese sweatshop workers are now out of work and Uxbal tries to help them in procuring work at a construction site. He buys cheap room heaters to warm up the cold basement where the Chinese workers stay. The heaters turn out to be deadly. All the workers confined in the basement are killed by the poisonous carbon monoxide emission from the heaters. Uxbal is shattered. A human trafficker attempts to dispose the dead bodies into the ocean but the plan fails when those are washed up onto the shore causing a widespread media sensation. Uxbal decides to hand over his entire savings to Ige who has bonded well with both Mateo and Ana. Ige decides to use this amount for her return to Senegal but changes the plan later on. Uxbal is almost at his very last stage of life and lying on the bed when Ige’s shadow appears behind the bathroom door. Finally the first two scenes repeat. Uxbal hands over the diamond ring to Ana, and he meets with his unseen father in a wintry environment.
Inarritu’s focus has always been on people from different countries. He is always concerned about human agonies across nations. Biutiful is no exception. The film depicts the lives and plight of Chinese and African immigrants. Uxbal’s way of earning may be illegal but his earnest efforts to help the African and Chinese workers cannot be denied and must be appreciated. A true artist can identify and bring out the darkness under the source of light. In the same way, Inarritu could identity the lives of the African and Chinese workers on the bustling streets of Barcelona and portray those in the film. Above all, Biutiful is a humane film that deals with some major issues of the modern world like illegal immigration, drug peddling, enslaved workforce, and corruption. The film also deals with some serious mental health issues like clinical depression, bipolar disorder. These issues are so devastating that they can break a family apart. The essence and value of life can be realized only in close proximity to death. Biutiful signifies the beauty of life amidst troubles.
Biutiful will always be remembered for Javier Bardem. It is his film. There is no single scene in the film where Bardem’s acting has not reached the highest level. His expressions throughout the film depict the pain that Uxbal carries in his life. Uncertainty in Uxbal’s life is comprehensible through Bardem’s acting. Maricel Alvarez is brilliant as an alcoholic, depressed, and promiscuous Marambra. Rodrigo Prieto’s camera truthfully captures the dark sides of glamorous Barcelona mostly through hand-held shots. The chase scenes where police officials brutally arrest the African drug peddlers are super dynamic. Prieto used a blue filter for shooting multiple scenes, which added a special flavor to his mesmerizing cinematography. Gustavo Santaolalla composed the background score by single cord guitar and sometimes through complex orchestration. He did a brilliant job too. Biutiful competed for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where Bardem won the Best Actor Award. The film was nominated for the Best Actor and Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. It was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 68th Golden Globe Awards.