What kept me glued was the leading man whose increasingly ravaged eyes reflect a thousand tragedies with such ease: [Javier] Bardem is truly 'biutiful'.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 3, 2019

Irritu's trademark interwoven plots have one thread too many here, but this shattering experience-earthbound and fraught with the afterlife-is worth every undying minute.

| Feb 7, 2018

Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to Biutiful.

| Original Score: A+ | Sep 8, 2017

Javier Bardem was Oscar-nominated for his performance and the film got a nod for best foreign-language film, but don't let that fool you; it's a stodgy, self-important slog.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 31, 2011

The film, whatever its intentions, winds up just being deeply depressing and, at nearly 2 1/2 hours, it's a very long slog indeed to the finish.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 23, 2011

The film is almost too broken and painful for most audiences to be able to experience Uxbal's pain. It's all here, and laid on a bit too thick.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 25, 2011

Irritu has a delicate yet searing sense of intimacy, which cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto captures with hand-held determination.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 11, 2011

Watch Bardem here -- his eyes speak heart-rending volumes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 11, 2011

With the exception of an otherworldly prologue that remains mysterious well into the film, Biutiful is an unusually linear feature for Irritu, but no less involving or challenging than his previous works Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 10, 2011

The movie is so well assembled it almost fools you into thinking there's something profound beneath its surface, but there's no way to get under without going through.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 4, 2011

When life is less inviting than death, the eye of the beholder is inclined to look away.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 4, 2011

An overloaded agony parade of a film that's such a grim march to devastation that it should be hard to watch. And, OK, it is. But with Bardem at its center, it's like watching a lush train wreck.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 4, 2011

Despite a commanding, Oscar-nominated performance by the always-interesting Javier Bardem, there's a quality of manufactured misery to "Biutiful"...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 3, 2011

[Bardem] draws from a deep, deep well of love, pain, and who-knows-what-else.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 3, 2011

It's the kind of film that congratulates the viewer on her tolerance for the spectacle of unrelieved misery.

| Feb 3, 2011

Bardem's performance makes it not just bearable but rich and compelling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2011

Irritu's previous films have been multilayered narratives. Here, he sticks to a single, admittedly richly vibrant milieu and a central character who appears in virtually every frame.

| Jan 31, 2011

The movie's mood might well have proved unendurable were it not for the proud and sympathetic presence of Bardem.

| Jan 31, 2011

Irritu is far from untalented -- Amores Perros had sequences as powerful as anything in the films of Luis Bunuel -- but misery has become his shtick.

| Original Score: C | Jan 29, 2011

Javier Bardem cuts a tragic figure as a dying Barcelona lowlife who traffics in illegal immigrants and communes with the dead.

| Jan 28, 2011