My movie watching and review writing has been on a slump lately, but I had to at least get a short post in for this movie. The husband picked this movie for me since he knows about my ongoing crush on Javier Bardem. (I know, what's next? He arranges a date for me with Daniel Craig? *hint, hint*)
As with any Javier movie, Biutiful is intense and moody. It also makes you struggle to find the beautiful in the story you are being told. For example, if you saw The Sea Inside (another Javier gem), would you call it beautiful? Perhaps to push us beyond our definition of beautiful, the lead female is played by a brilliant (yet not pretty) Maricel Alvarez. Her casting reminded me of the many Almodovar movies with Rossy de Palma, where I would start the movie with "Couldn't you find anyone else" and end the movie with "boy she was good!". I suppose it is a sad statement about how we (pointing finger at self) are used to seeing pretty faces portraying beautiful people.
Javier portrays a man separated from his wife, raising his two children by himself. In the first few minutes of the movie, he learns that he has advanced stage cancer and a handful of months to live. The rest of the story launches from here, with him trying to provide for his children's future while telling the story of his involvement with the underworld, his estranged wife, and his ability to connect to departing souls.
There are plenty of reviews to be had and I hate to compete with others better qualified to write it, so I'll just say this is a beautiful movie which might leave you disturbed (the way Crash did for me). After finishing this movie, you might need to watch a few scenes of Top Gun to recover. Not that anybody I know does that. :)
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