Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Biutiful

THE REVIEW

The dim lights cast the glimmers of a Barcelona teetering between life and death: on one side the tourists and their curiosity, on the other the suffering of the desperate and the under-the-table work, which has recently resurfaced forcefully with the tragedy of Barletta.

A city alive in every form: Uxbal (Javier Bardem), is a product of the sick society reflected in Barcelona. He lives in a rundown house, with the constant fear of not being able to provide for his two children due to an uncertain and dangerous job. His health deteriorates day by day and his wife is mentally unstable. He sees everything around him slipping away and his fear grows.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: many thought he was finished after his loyal screenwriter Arriaga left him. Most critics attributed the success of his films not so much to Inarritu's directorial skills, but to Arriaga's storytelling ability. If anyone needed an answer about the real capabilities of the Mexican filmmaker, Biutiful is an even too strong a response. This is because Inarritu's film sends signals that, although now part of daily life, shock for realism and authenticity. The fear of the day after belongs to the marginalized who do not know what to expect from tomorrow, but who strive to accept this life condition. A reality that has now spread widely, affecting those people who just a few years ago considered themselves at peace.

The long hair and beard of Bardem show us how things change and when they do, they always seem to go wrong. The advancing illness, the fear of a world that devours people and in which Uxbal must raise his children. Amidst all this a contradictory job that leads him to use immigrants: yet the awareness of his difficulties, the same that these people suffer, leads him to help them, up to a scene that explodes the flesh in its simplicity: the greatest pain lies in thinking that realities like those analyzed in Biutiful exist by the thousands around the world.

Exploited people, alone with themselves: it's hard to accept such a society, hard to be a father already knowing your own fate. Destiny...