Biutiful is a 2010 psychological drama film directed, produced pancho villa tattoo co-written by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Javier Bardem. Spanish-language performance to be nominated for the award. The title Biutiful is in reference to the phonetic spelling in Spanish of the English word beautiful. Uxbal lives in a shabby apartment in Barcelona with his two young children, Ana and Mateo.
He is separated from their mother Marambra, who is a woman suffering from alcoholism and bipolar disorder and works as a prostitute. Uxbal initially begins chemotherapy, but he later ends the treatment at the advice of his friend and alternative healer Bea. She also gives him two black stones which she asks him to give his children before he dies. The group of Africans are brutally arrested by the police, despite Uxbal’s regular payment of bribes, because they also deal in drugs. As Uxbal’s health continues to deteriorate, he is plagued with guilt that he is responsible for the expulsion of the Senegalese and the death of the Chinese. With his death drawing nearer, he realizes that there will be nobody to take care of Ana and Mateo once he is gone.
He entrusts the remainder of his savings to Ige, asking her to stay with the children after his death. She accepts his request but later decides to use the money to return to Africa. Uxbal often has visions, and is on powerful drugs due to his chemotherapy. As Ige’s return is only shown in silhouette, many have theorized that she is simply a hallucination, and did in fact leave for Senegal with the remainder of Uxbal’s savings. Another theory is that she was murdered, as she was walking around with a great deal of cash in a very unsafe area.
Biutiful was produced in both Spain and Mexico. This section may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. 155 reviews, with an average rating of 6. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Javier Bardem’s searing performance helps to elevate Biutiful, as does Alejandro González Iñárritu’s craftsmanship, but the film often lapses into contrivance and grimness. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter calls the film, “a gorgeous melancholy tone poem about love, fatherhood and guilt”, and describes Bardem’s performance as “a knockout.
Justin Chang of Variety wrote Iñárritu is “stuck in a grim rut. Filmmakers Sean Penn, Werner Herzog and Michael Mann have been very outspoken in their acclaim for the film. Cast and crew at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. On 25 January 2011, the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards while Javier Bardem received a nomination for Best Actor.