A Film that should be called, Not So Biutiful!
One man against the world is the basic premise of Biutiful. Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a father who just wants to be happy. With a number of bad business associates, a dead-beat ex-wife, and a terminal disease spreading throughout his body, happiness seems beyond his reach. But he has two beautiful children that he lives for and they are the light in his seemingly dark world. Uxbal will inspire you as he shows the world that life may dish out more than what you can take, but if you put family first things always work out.
The only beautiful thing about Biutiful was Uxbal’s relationship with his children; he was the epitome of a loving father. Javier Bardem is truly inspiring in the role of Uxbal as his talent shined through and I gained a lot of respect for him as an actor. I also thought that the moral of the story was a good one but was overshadowed by a lot of the unfortunate events that kept happening to him. Also, since it’s a movie in Spanish, the English translation subtitles were very difficult to follow. I had to stop the movie several times to ask my husband what was going on. I also thought that the sub-plots were dark and quite depressing or maybe that was because the translation wasn’t accurate. Impressive acting, a good moral story, but if you want Biutiful to be beautiful, learn to speak Spanish fluently and then rent this one.
Motherly Advice: I had my filters set on medium and I was spared a sex scene and a couple of drinking scenes. I have only one caveat, Clearplay is brilliant in every way but it can only do so much with subtitles, it’s hard to black out the swear words. So be aware that you will be reading a whole lot of “F” words and other expletives. Due to this and some other disturbing scenes, some including dead bodies and others showing two men right after a sexual encounter, I would recommend this film for ages 18 and up.
Trisha~Wishing I could remember my high-school Spanish classes!
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