You could call this a true "catholic" movie - it's all about committing sins so that one can confess them later. It is also far too loaded with potential guilt items - all of them fulfilled. If he had stuck to the basic premise of exploiting third-world immigrants and cut out half of the bathos, it would have been a much better movie. The best you can say for it is that there is no sentimentality.
Docked two notches for the extremely hokey beginning and ending repeat meetings with his "father" in a snowfield.
If you want bathos free movies of this type, search out the Dardenne brothers films - or their American equivalent, Sean Baker.

Gritty film. Some scenes are difficult to watch.
Regular folks trying to get by being all the time down and out and gasping for air.
Javier Bardem wonderful as always.

This movie was a bit slow and very depressing but I thought that the acting was very well done. I felt terrible for Uxbal and the people he "tried" to help but realized how close to the truth the film probably was. If you are interested in seeing the darker side of Barcelona then this film would probably interest you.

Subtitles were small & occasionally blended into the background. A little slow with a few unnecessary shots but did an excellent job with displaying the crazy emotional rollercoaster that bipolar people deal with. Don't see much of the children but they were very good in their roles, could read their emotions just by looking at their faces, a hard task for child actors/actress'. Overall, it was a good movie.

This movie shows the grittier side of life in Barcelona, Spain as the country sinks into a serious recession and the resulting unemployment, social fabric breakdown, drug use, immigrants from north and west Africa trying to find a place in society, human trafficking from China to work making knockoffs and low wages in construction where Spanish and international mobs make the profits This is not the travel brochure Spain that we are accustomed to. Javier Bardem's performance, to borrow another reviewer's line, is searing. Powerful movie.

When a smalltime hustler discovers he only has a few months to live his life takes on an added sense of urgency. Uxbal is a good man at heart who loves his two children and tries to do right by his mentally ill ex-wife. Although he is deeply involved in human smuggling he goes to great lengths to ensure the people he deals with, mostly mainland Chinese and north Africans, are treated as fairly as possible. But as his health fails and death becomes more imminent he tries to make peace with the world including the souls of the newly departed whose pitiful sobbing and grimacing faces he can sometimes sense. This visually gorgeous film is enhanced by an almost subliminal soundtrack of blowing winds and pulsing beats. From a gentle forest blanketed in snow to a hellishly throbbing discotheque, from a grimy sweatshop to a quiet churchyard, Inarritu weaves multiple character’s into a gritty ultra-contemporary meditation on death and life replete with images of both life-affirming solidity and fragile mortality. Delicate, muscular and surreal in turn, Biutiful is sure to be one of this year’s cinematic gems.

This is not your typical Hollywood movie; In fact none of Inarritu's movies are your run-of-the-mill Hollywood! A realistically portrayed movie, with several themes on human condition, circumstance, the interplay of exploitation and empathy; in short its a tear-jerking, heart-rending movie!

Please, it is also an adult movie!

very difficult story to follow. many small stories in the big story. the Spanish is really Catalonian and the subtitles are badly done.
not appropriate for under 16 years.

Javier Bardem did a fantastic job in this film, but be warned, the film is definitely not a romp in the park. Very dark, very gritty view of life on the edge in Barcelona's cramped underworld. Here we meet crooked cops, human traffikers, scam artists, illegal immigrants, shady businessmen, all trying to make a go of their lives. In this mix we meet two children who provide the counterpoint bit of hope that Bardem's character clings to in the midst of his own tragedy. Be prepared for some very quiet Spanish dialogue, sometimes hard to read subtitles, and jarring loud music every once in a while - oh yes, and some disturbing sights. Enjoy is not a word to describe this film, but it certainly will impress and leave you with deep thoughts.

Well written and acted. Can be a bit slow at times but keep at it. This is a good but very sad movie. A very real movie about life for the less fortunate, it will not leave you feeling warm and fuzzy all over.