Review: Biutiful

Review: Biutiful

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 63%

Audience: 75%

Biutiful is the painful story of a dying father's love for his children. It's a mess of a movie, but Javier Bardem's performance is so compelling and so devastating, it almost redeems the film.

Bardem plays Uxbal, who dwells with his family in the slums of Barcelona. He is willing to do anything for his children -- and he does, living on the margin in a world of crime and danger.

And he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer -- news he keeps from his children as he does all he can to protect them from their mother, his bipolar, abusive ex-wife. It's a gritty, difficult film to watch except for Bardem's amazingly expressive face.

It was easy to forget I was watching a movie star on the screen -- to believe it was a documentary about a tragic family from Barcelona.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it