LIFE IS "BIUTIFUL"

As I write the title above, I can almost feel my mother flexing her fingers before hitting the keyboard to ask me if that is how I think beautiful is spelt. You see my mother is an English teacher. Therefore, call it the habit of 30 odd years of teaching, call it being a mom, call it a combination of both, every Thursday, in the evening at the very latest, I will get a little e-mail from Mom containing the corrections for this week’s updates. Those of you are more observant than average may have notices commas appearing (yes, I am related to a comma Nazi – Mom, google it, it’s a bona fide term these days) and typos disappearing later in the day. All thanks to my Mom.  But that’s the way with parents. As Biutiful doesn’t hesitate to remind us.

Biutiful is the story of Uxbal (portrayed by the incredibly talented Javier Bardem). Uxbal is many things to many people, some know him as a medium. Others the middle man between knock-off copies and street salesman on the streets. To yet others he’s the guy who greases the palms of the police so they look the other way. But above and beyond anything, Uxbal is a father. He may not be able to provide the best living possible for his children but he adores them. And they know it. And this is really all that matters. When Uxbal finds out he has a matter of weeks to live, it becomes even more important. We follow him on his journey, desperately trying to put his affairs in order, and trying to accept the next step in his existence.

I wasn’t sure about this film when I started. The more I watched, seriously, the more I fell in love with it. The style is different from the Inaritu we know from Amores Perros, the story moves more slowly (comparatively, anyway) and allows more time for thought and consideration. Uxbal is a brilliant character, a modern Jean Valjean if you will. Yes, what he does is often questionable- very questionable - but you can never really blame him. The film has many strengths, Bardem’s brilliant performance is one of them, but the other – in my view – is the wonderful, understated realism of the whole film. All the characters, all the events, they are constructed in such a way, be they happy, sad, ugly or “biutiful” they are very, very real. Inaritu has succeeded in capturing on film a quality of life that I find hard to put into words. No matter how tragic and dark the events, there is always, and I mean always, a light shimmering through. Like the love Uxbal has for his children that gives everything meaning. And many other little things I’ll let you discover throughout the film. The more I think about it, the more suitable a name “biutiful” becomes. But like most things in life, you’re going to have to see it for yourselves to truly understand what I mean.