Biutiful (2010)

"...creates a feeling of raw, sprawling intimacy.  A.O. Scott, New York Times
"[It] ultimately gives us a story of hope, and from Bardem, a performance of staggering depth...  Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
"Soulful, tragic and made with loving care.  Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine

Editor's Note A man tries to reconcile his desire to be good with his lawless ways in this dark drama from Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu. 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 Álvarez), 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 Fernández). 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.

	Diarytou Daff
	Javier Bardem
	Eduard Fernandez
	Cheng Taishen
	Maricel Alvarez
	Hanaa Bouchaib - Co-Star
	Luo Jin - Co-Star
	Ruben Ochandiano - Co-Star
	Sophie Evans - Co-Star
	Ana Wagener - Co-Star
	Violeta Perez - Co-Star
	Cheikh Ndiaye - Co-Star
	Tomas delEstal - Co-Star
	Karra Elejalde - Co-Star
	Eduardo Gomez - Co-Star
	Rodrigo Prieto - Director of Photography
	Ann Ruark - Production Manager/UPM
	Alejandro González Iñárritu - Screenwriter
	Alejandro González Iñárritu - Story
	Martin Hernandez - Sound
	Javier Soto - Assistant Director
	Lynn Fainchtein - Music Director
	Jose Garcia - Sound
	Anibel Kerpel - Music Editor
	Gustavo Santaolalla - Composer
	Manolo Garcia - Hairstylist
	Armando Bo - Screenwriter
	Nicolas Giacobone - Screenwriter
	Guillermo Estrella - Co-Star
	George Chibuikwem Chukwuma - Co-Star
	Lang Sofia Lin - Co-Star
	Yodian Yang - Co-Star
	Tuo Lin - Co-Star
	Xueheng Chen - Co-Star
	Xiaoyan Zhang - Co-Star
	Ye Ailie - Co-Star
	Xianlin Bao - Co-Star
	Nasser Saleh - Co-Star
	Angel Luis Arjona - Co-Star
	Dolores Echepares - Co-Star
	Adelfa Calvo - Co-Star
	Manuel Solo - Co-Star
	German Almendros - Co-Star
	Isaac Alcaide - Co-Star
	Nacho Moline - Co-Star
	Annabel Totusaus - Co-Star
	Ramon Elies - Co-Star
	Juan Vicente Sanchez - Co-Star
	Felix Cubero - Co-Star
	Carmen Peleteiro - Co-Star
	Federico Munoz - Co-Star
	Leticia Albizuri - Co-Star
	Maria Casado - Co-Star
	Judith Huertas - Co-Star
	Aroa Ortiz - Co-Star
	Victoria M. Diaz - Co-Star
	Sonia Cruz - Co-Star
	Luna Jimenez Colindres - Co-Star
	Dunia Montenegro - Co-Star
	Rodica Ioana Ungureanu - Co-Star
	Carmen LaLata - Co-Star
	Alejandro González Iñárritu - Director

Movieline
"In the end, what's most deeply affecting about BIUTIFUL is a face -- Bardem's." 12/28/2010

Los Angeles Times
"[A]n ethereal yet visceral meditation on living and dying....[Bardem gives] a performance of staggering depth, unquestionably one of the year's best." 12/29/2010

New York Times
"[Bardem] combines muscular, charismatic physicality with an almost delicate sensitivity..." 12/28/2010

Wall Street Journal
"As for Mr. Bardem, he's ever so much more than a tragic face. He gives this hero tragic grandeur." 12/31/2010

Hollywood Reporter
"[I]t's a gorgeous, melancholy tone poem about love, fatherhood and guilt....Some scenes are absolutely wrenching to behold." 12/17/2010

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] riveting, if harrowing piece....Bardem is tremendous here." 02/01/2011

Chicago Sun-Times
"Bardem, who received a best actor Oscar nomination for BIUTIFUL, is a vastly human actor....Here he suffers, and is good, and suffers partly simply because he cannot do good things." 01/26/2011

USA Today
"Iñárritu is a filmmaker drawn to dark, layered tales. His collaboration with the soulful Bardem is an inspired one." 01/28/2011

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[F]erocious filmmaking, directed with lyrical austerity and played with conviction." 03/01/2011

The Hollywood Reporter 9 of 10
Understand that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Biutiful" has a strong, linear narrative drive. Nevertheless, and most of all, it's a gorgeous, melancholy tone poem about love, fatherhood and guilt. Some scenes are absolutely wrenching to behold. Others hit home with a punch to the solar plexus. Spain -- and Barcelona to be specific -- has beckoned forth the wistful poet in the Mexican-born filmmaker. His response to this summons is a film that, while about death, is teeming with life in all its tangled messiness...Javier Bardem, delivers a knockout performance as a hero whose last days are detailed with Joycean elan, filled with ambiguity, contradictions and lyricism."Biutiful" will require several viewings for the film to yield a complete portrait of its mysterious, flawed hero. Because for all the complexity of his previous films, with fractured, multiple narratives and an array of international characters, this in many ways is Inarritu's most intricate study yet of the human condition. - Kirk Honeycutt