Biutiful – DVD

Details: Amazon.ca A heartbreakingly direct performance by Javier Bardem anchors Biutiful, a film from Mexican auteur Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu (Babel, 21 Grams). Uxbal (Bardem) is not an admirable man: he’s a criminal middleman, helping human traffickers and illicit street peddlers in Barcelona. But in the thick of his corrupt and compromised world, Uxbal strives to do some modest good: he demands heaters for the cold basement where illegal Chinese laborers sleep and he carefully scrapes together money for his children, whom he deeply adores. On top of all this, Uxbal can commune with the recently dead, and tries to pass on reassurance to the bereaved. When Uxbal himself is diagnosed with severe cancer, he desperately tries to leave behind something better for his children. This plot summary paints a bleak picture, and there’s no question this is–much like Irritu’s other films, including Amores Perros–an emotionally harrowing experience. But