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Dec 30, 2014Nursebob rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
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.