Biutiful

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Overview

A man tries to reconcile his desire to be good with his lawless ways in this dark drama from Mexican auteur Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu. Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a man with a bright side and a dark side. Uxbal is a caring father who is strong but affectionate toward his two children, Ana (Hanaa Bouchaib) and Mateo (Guillermo Estrella), and he struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with their mother, Marambra (Maricel ?lvarez), despite her problems with alcohol and instability. But Uxbal is also a criminal who oversees a small underground empire alongside fellow crime boss Hai (Taisheng Cheng) and Uxbal's impulsive brother, Tito (Eduard Fern?ndez). Uxbal's dealings range from drugs to construction, but unlike his partners in crime, he tries to treat those around him with dignity even as he trades in human misery. Uxbal's precarious world begins to collapse when he's diagnosed with a serious illness and told he has only a few weeks left to live; he tries to put his affairs in order in the time he has left, but realizes that few around him have any sense of responsibility. Biutiful receives its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/31/2011
UPC:	0012236114000
Original Release:	2010
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:27:00
Sales rank:	41,423

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Javier Bardem	Uxbal
Maricel Álvarez	Marambra
Eduard Fernández	Tito
Diarytou Daff	Igé,Actor
Cheng Taishen	Hai
Jin Luo	Liwei
Guillermo Estrella	Mateo
Rubén Ochandiano	Zanc,Actor
Hanaa Bouchaib	Ana
Cheikh N'Diaye	Ekweme
George Chibuikwem Chukwuma	Samuel
Lang Sofia Lin	Li,Barman Bar Hai
Yodian Yang	Chino Obeso
Xueheng Chen	Chino Bodega
Xiaoyan Zhang	Jung
Ye Ailie	Hai's Father
Xianlin Bao	Hai's Mother
Ana Wagener	Bea
Karra Elejalde	Mendoza
Nasser Saleh	Muchacho
Tomás Del Estal	Hombre de Luto
Ángel Luis Arjona	Niño Muerto
Dolores Echepares	Señora Funeral
Adelfa Calvo	Mujer Grande
Manuel Solo	Médico
Violeta Pérez	Enfermera
Germán Almendros	Cirujano 1
Isaac Alcaide	Cirujano 2
Nacho Moliné	Cirujano 3
Carmen La Lata	Vieja
Annabel Totusaus	Secretaria Fincas
Eduardo Gómez	Hombre Semidesnudo
Ramón Elies	Empleado Cementerio 1
Juan Vicente Sánchez	Empleado Cementerio 2
Félix Cubero	Burócrata
Carmen Peleteiro	Mesera Ma
Federico Muñoz	Alcalde
Leticia Albizuri	Chica Joven 2
María Casado	Presentadora Informativos
Judith Huertas	Reportera Informativos
Cheikh Ndiaye	Actor
Taishen Cheng	Actor
Maricel Alvarez	Actor
Luo Jin	Liwei
Aroa Ortiz	Stripper
Victoria M. Díaz	Stripper
Sonia Cruz	Stripper
Sophie Evans	Stripper
Luna Jiménez Colindres	Stripper
Dunia Montenegro	Stripper
Rodica Ioana Ungureanu	Stripper
Lio Jin	Actor
Eduardo Fernandez	Actor
Gustavo Santolalla	Composer

Technical Credits

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Armando Bó

Nicolás Giacobone

Armando Bo

Alejandro González Iñárritu	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Javier Bardem	Director
Hanaa Bouchaib	Director
Maricel Álvarez	Director
Eduard Fernández	Director
Jon Kilik	Producer
Fernando Bovaira	Producer
Armando Bó	Screenwriter
Nicolás Giacobone	Screenwriter
Armando Bo	Screenwriter
David Linde	Executive Producer
José Garcia	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

In all of his previous films, director Alejandro González Iñárritu chronicled the mostly tragic lives of many different characters. However, with his 2010 drama, Biutiful, the internationally renowned Mexican filmmaker focuses on a single protagonist who faces just as many tragic circumstances as all the characters in Iñárritu's Oscar-nominated Babel -- combined. How is Uxbal's (Javier Bardem) life going wrong? Let me count the ways. One: he's a single father of two children who scrapes out a living through a number of illegal activities -- he oversees a small drug operation and he helps manage a sweatshop run by two Asian gangsters. Two: his ex-wife, an addict whose erratic behavior continues to complicate life for Uxbal and their kids, is sleeping with Uxbal's brother. Three: his own father recently passed away. Four: he's urinating blood, and about to get a dire prognosis. Five: he can talk to the dead. As his health continues to deteriorate, Uxbal tries to get his affairs in order, keep his kids safe, and find forgiveness for a selfish act that leads to multiple deaths. Miraculously, Biutiful turns out to be less of a depressing slog than Iñárritu's last two films, thanks in large part to the excellent lead performance by Javier Bardem. Many actors would have begged for our sympathies by playing up the melodramatic elements of Uxbal's circumstances -- Nic Cage would probably have turned this character into a screaming ball of neuroses and tics. But Bardem is a strong, masculine presence who's magnetic onscreen even when he's not doing much of anything; he's a perfect embodiment of the old axiom that less is more -- consider his chilling, Oscar-winning turn as the relentless killer in No Country for Old Men. He understands that what Uxbal is going through is so incredibly melodramatic that the only way for it to stay real is to minimize his emotional responses. He's not stoic, just restrained, and because he modulates his performance this way, the few times the character does explode it's all the more powerful. Bardem's uncanny emotional economy actually seems to have had an effect on Iñárritu as a director. Unlike Babel and 21 Grams, Biutiful doesn't seem designed for the sole purpose of putting the audience through an emotional gauntlet. Uxbal is arguably the most complex and sympathetic character he's created, and for the first time in his career Iñárritu fully trusts his audience and his actor. It's not a radical change in tone -- there is an unrelenting sadness that weighs down every frame of the movie -- but for the first time it feels like it's the people in the movie that are struggling as opposed to us in the audience.