The Sunday Leader - By Sumaya SamarasingheWe in Sri Lanka rarely have the opportunity to watch good European films.
Apart from the British Council, the Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute and organisations like ICES which screen non mainstream European/ independent movies, our choices are terribly limited.
So when Biutiful directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu appeared on the shelves of a few video clubs, the normal reaction for an avid cinema lover was to pounce on it! Inarritu had after all directed the haunting Babel five years ago but it is really his 2003 directorial stint of 21 Grams which gave the meaning of ‘ ‘loss’ a completely different definition. Naomi Watts plays the role of a woman whose two little daughters and husband are knocked down by a drunken driver. Her husband’s heart is donated to a Maths professor played by Sean Penn while she drowns her pain in booze and drugs. Both Babel and 21 Grams told several heart wrenching stories at once, cross cutting and connecting to each other at the end thanks to a perfect story logic by the director and his script writer. Biutiful however follows one man in a very linear and simple way, and this thankfully; because with the ridiculous and only available English subtitles in the purchased copy; paying attention to four or five stories at once would have been impossible. For example, our hero Uxbal played by the incredibly charismatic Javier Bardem is feeling unwell and goes for some tests to the doctor, here are some of the fantastic subtitles; in brackets, what should have been written!more
‘‘Nurse to take blood test” ( the nurse will come in a few minutes and take your blood)
“ Days”( Good evening)
“ No Satan, I am no longer pisleto’” ( your guess is as good as mine, but Uxbal looked particularly annoyed) This is a dialogue between Uxbal and his bi-polar wife.
Uxbal “ Did you give massages this morning?” ( Uxbal is not asking her anything about massages, that is very obvious)
Wife: “I was frightened, I could see the sky” (Her answer means nothing of course!)
The film is filled with subtitle “gems” which from time to time suddenly make sense but unfortunately not often enough. So best would be to read up about the film prior to watching it and though subtleties may be missed, the powerful acting by Bardem which won him an Academy Award nomination in 2011 and the prize for best actor at the Cannes Film Festival together with the tight script makes it possible for non Spanish speakers to understand the film! Bardem plays Uxbal, a man’s whose life is falling apart. He is a middle man for immigrants and provides Chinese workers to sweatshops while also supplying illegal Senegalese workers with counterfeit designer bags and watches to sell on the posher streets of Barcelona. Uxbal really has plenty on his plate. When the film begins, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and is advised to get his affairs in order.The main worry of this adoring father is to find a reliable person to look after his two beloved children, daughter Ana and little son Mateo. Uxbal’s estranged wife Marambra is bi-polar and incapable of taking care of the kids.In one instance, Uxbal is forced to rely on her, which ends up in a disaster when he finds Mateo with a bruised face and abandoned by his mother.
Without Javier Bardem as the lead, Biutiful would have probably been just an average film about the consequences of poverty and illness. But Bardem is Uxbal, a man who is busy trying to survive as long as possible for the sake of his children. His strong and heavy lidded face grows paler as the cancer eats him up and Bardem’s onscreen presence becomes unforgettable as the film goes along. He is one of the few actors these days who can be as convincing in light rom coms like Eat Pray Love, play killers in No Country for Old Men or be a dying small scale criminal.
A tough street hustler, we know that Uxbal will not make it because of his illness and that small streak of compassion he feels vis a vis the illegals he is attempting to help; that kindness by the way will have dramatic consequences.
Inarritu films a different Barcelona to what we are used to seeing in features. People sleep on streets and Ana and Mateo dream of tasty food to eat while their loving and caring father obviously cannot afford to give them what they want.
Unfortunately, the director’s habit to throw his stories into several different directions remains somewhat present and Uxbal is seeing playing yet another role of a man who has the power to communicate with the dead, not for free, of course, the grieving relatives hand him bundles of cash just to make sure that their beloved deceased ones are at peace. Apart from accentuating the hero’s very conflicted character and his approach of death, the “seeing dead people” part is not handled with enough depth and could have therefore been completely removed. Once you get past the bad subtitles and the giggles they may cause in you, Biutiful is one of the most unforgettable odes to fatherhood made in recent times and it has been a long time since we have watched a man juggle life, death, love and children all at once.
Best solution; get hold of a good copy, with subtitles in one language if possible!
