Biutiful

Foreign, Depressing
2 stars
I’d rather slit my writs than sit through that film again. More depressing even than Winter’s Bone! Spanish with English subtitles. There is nothing beautiful about this film – the title is a child’s misspelling. Javier Bardem (whom I love) stars as a man living in a squalid section of Barcelona trying to provide for his kids by working as a go-between with a Chinese sweatshop, the Senegalese men who sell the wares and the cops he must bribe. His wife is a whore and his brother is another lowlife. Oh, and he’s peeing blood, so you know that’s not going to end well. The film is raw and realistic and the acting is excellent – the reason I went to see it was because of the raves for Bardem’s performance – but why would anyone want to watch something so depressing? I’d have given it a higher rating, but there is no excitement, just despair as these people get on with their lives in fetid living conditions. And it’s really long too at 147 minutes. Go at your own risk.