Biutiful 2010

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: Inarritu is as visually talented as any filmmaker working today, and Biutiful (which was shot by Rodrigo Prieto) is relentlessly detailed. But it's also leaden and contrived. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: Biutiful blesses you with the opportunity to see soul exposed, courtesy of Bardem's performance... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: From one scene to the next, as is his custom, Mr. Gonzalez Inarritu creates a feeling of raw, sprawling intimacy. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Biutiful is not a tragedy. It's a straight-up travesty. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Despite a commanding, Oscar-nominated performance by the always-interesting Javier Bardem, there's a quality of manufactured misery to "Biutiful"... Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: In spite of fine work from Bardem and Alvarez, Biutiful is an irritating, oppressive 150-minute dirge, not the step forward Inarritu's dissolved partnership with Arriaga seemed to promise. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Bardem's performance makes it not just bearable but rich and compelling. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Inarritu wants to run us ragged - physically, spiritually, emotionally, it's all the same to him. And he'll empty his complete cinematic arsenal to do so. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Javier Bardem cuts a tragic figure as a dying Barcelona lowlife who traffics in illegal immigrants and communes with the dead. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Am I the only one who sensed trouble when the painfully methodical spacing and timing of the opening titles suggested the heaviest, most medicinal tragedy of this or any other year? Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Inarritu is far from untalented -- Amores Perros had sequences as powerful as anything in the films of Luis Bunuel -- but misery has become his shtick. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Boasts quality of acting and an overall intensity level that make up for a lot of narrative shortcomings. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Inarritu has a delicate yet searing sense of intimacy, which cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto captures with hand-held determination. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 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. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: [It] ultimately gives us a story of hope, and from Bardem, a performance of staggering depth, unquestionably one of the year's best. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Rarely has an actor anchored a wobbly movie so confidently as Bardem does here. He displays an astonishing range of emotions, from love to anger to shock and horror, with a conviction that is something close to awesome. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The movie's mood might well have proved unendurable were it not for the proud and sympathetic presence of Bardem. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: The high level of craft can't sustain the movie as its script (written by Inarritu with Armando Bo and Nicolas Giacobone) becomes increasingly hectoring. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Its portrait of a man with nothing who must deal with the end of everything while trying to safeguard his children has moments of power and poetry. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Looking for a dark and depressing movie for the holidays? You'll find it in Biutiful, the riveting work of two talented Spaniards: director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and actor Javier Bardem. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: [Bardem] draws from a deep, deep well of love, pain, and who-knows-what-else. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What drew me into the film and engaged my sympathy was the presence of Bardem himself. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It would be impossible to list the Oscar-worthy performances of 2010 without highlighting Javier Bardem in Biutiful. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: What Inarritu gives us is not a beautiful world or an amazing world. It is simply the world, and therefore, by definition, beautiful and amazing - and painful, awful and mysterious. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's the kind of film that congratulates the viewer on her tolerance for the spectacle of unrelieved misery. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Biutiful" is devastating. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: When life is less inviting than death, the eye of the beholder is inclined to look away. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Watch Bardem here -- his eyes speak heart-rending volumes. Read more

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

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Soulful, tragic and made with loving care. But it's also so gloomy that you're not sure who to recommend it to. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Inarritu's film won't work for everyone. Yet, it offers consolation that, in a world of numbing, overwhelming anguish, human feeling is still possible. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Biutiful is a love story about the bonds of parenthood with pinpoints of redemptive light amid the darkness. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Its scant emotional rewards can't shake off the sense of a prodigiously gifted filmmaker stuck in a grim rut. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Biutiful is even more morbidly obese than Babel in terms of soggy ideas, elephantine with miserabilist humanism and redemption jibber-jabber. Read more

Sean O'Connell, Washington Post: Watching Bardem occupy, embrace and ultimately own a multifaceted role like the one he plays in "Biutiful" is a rare treat, and an absolute joy. Read more