Biutiful

Biutiful, by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, is a circular piece that is as much a film about life as it is death, particularly that of the protagonist, Uxbal, who we discover has terminal cancer within the first twenty minutes. The plot centers around Uxbal's impending death, leading the viewer through a series of short scenes revolving around Uxbal's two children, his bi-polar wife, a family of African illegal immigrants, and two Chinese businessmen with a warehouse full of illegal Chinese workers. We come to discover the profoundly important role Uxbal plays in keeping all of these people's lives from ruin even as his cancer worsens.

This film truly is Biutiful (which we learn is the way his daughter attempts to spell Beautiful on a picture she colored), and profoundly poignant, as are most of Iñárritu's films (i.e. Babel, 21 Grams). This time, though, the central focus is on death, on the impact one man's life has on the lives of others around him. Ever-present, the fear of death propels the protagonist to ensure the safety of his children and Chinese business partners, the mental welfare of his wife, and the quality of his African friend's family. Per typical Iñárritu style, shit hits the fan. New heaters Uxbal buys for the Chinese workers' warehouse suffocate all of them in their sleep and the resulting police investigation cause the two Chinese men in charge, former lovers, to turn against each other, until one ultimately murders the other after one last sexual encounter. The African immigrant family loses its father when he's arrested for street vending illegal, knock-off purses. Uxbal's alcoholic, bi-polar wife continues her volatile self-desctructive behavior, forcing Uxbal to look for a different caretaker of his children, whom he finds in the African immigrant Ekweme's wife, Ige. Life is never easy to leave, it seems. Even in death there is immense suffering.

However, also in true Iñárritu fashion, the film's saving grace comes in the beauty between the chaos. Perhaps the most poignant symbol in the film comes from stones Uxbal gives to both of his children for protection, to remember him by. This idea of memory stems from a deep understanding the writer had of Uxbal's character — he lost his father when very young and cannot recall a single memory of him, and thus Uxbal does not want the same for his children. He is a good father, a good provider, a good friend, and he wishes his legacy of this would remain in his young kids' minds, continue to influence the way in which they develop. Above all, he holds beauty, trust, friendship, love — giving and caring for his fellow man. He tells his daughter, in the second to last scene, "Look into my eyes, look at my face. Remember me, please. Don't forget me, Ana." THis idea of memory balances the loss of death, gives it hope, redemption.

The circular nature of the film helps in this redemption of theme. The film opens with a shot of Uxbal's arm stretched up into the darkness above his bed, his wife's hand playing gently with his ring as Uxbal tells her about fearing the sound of the ocean when he was young. In a flash of white, the scene transitions to Uxbal, looking stronger and healthier than any other point in the film, stands in a snow-cover forest. A man emerges from the trees and looks directly at him, they smoke a cigarette, exit the screen. These scenes replay at the end of the film, now in context we understand that man to be his father, the little hand to be his wife's. Uxbal gives his ring to her, as it had once belonged to his father before him, another token. We assume he then dies to join his father in that snowy forest, finally at peace.



Ultimately I found the theme of life/death in the film to be its strongest point. The eloquence in which Alejandro González Iñárritu conveys the beauty of both, even in the face of the worst situations, left me with a sense of hope. And though I was immediately depressed by the content, by the movement of the piece, days later as I think about it, I can't help but feel blessed with my own life, happy even in my miseries because in everything there exists beauty, everything can be biutiful.