Biutiful

Not beautiful.  Ok, a bit of an exaggeration.  The cinematography was stunning, as it is in all of Alejandro González Iñárritu's work.  Amores Perros?  Amazing.  But the difference here is that Amores Perros was engaging and compelling, whereas Biutiful was slow and choppy.  In both films Iñárritu is intertwining three stories, but whereas in the former he achieves a seamless flow in the latter the audience is just kind of tossed around.  However, Javier Bardem's performance was something to take note of.  He threw his whole self into the role, and you can see the emotion oozing from every pore.


There are many possible reasons as to why I did not enjoy this film - maybe I missed some cultural significance.  Maybe subtleties of the editing were lost on me.  Or maybe 2.5hrs of eating-to-stay-awake-through-general-boredom-with-the-plot is the culprit...