Biutiful vs Mona Lisa

Uxbal is soft-spoken and serious, whether he’s dealing with the living or the dead. His side job is relaying answers to lingering questions from the recently deceased to their families left behind. There’s no trance, no showboating, no candles. Early in Biutiful, Uxbal takes a seat in a funeral home near coffins containing three dead boys. Across the room, one of the boys appears on a chair. Uxbal approaches his coffin (the boy is there too, with his eyes open), and calmly asks the boy why he won’t leave. He doesn’t seem to charge much for this service, even though he obviously needs the money. His day job is equally as depressing, and to the people it benefits, valuable. Uxbal manages a group of illegal African immigrants who sell knock-off purses and umbrellas on the street. The goods are made by another group of illegals, these Chinese, in a sweatshop. One of them is Uxbal’s babysitter. Uxbal’s traveling in some dark worlds, but he’s kind, and for all the danger (of scams, arrests, violence, you name it) he’s good at his jobs. His children are too young to care for themselves, and their mother, a bipolar addict, isn’t dependable help. Uxbal’s in a similar predicament to Ree in Winter’s Bone. He’s protecting his children as best he can, but also trying to make them independent, so they’ll survive when he’s not there, because he is dying.

Biutiful is the newest movie by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Like his last movie, Babel, Biutiful is filled with wounded souls from various cultures. This time, there’s only one setting, the seedier side of Barcelona, and one wounded soul to anchor the others: Uxbal, played by Javier Bardem, in a heartbreaker of a performance. This is one of our great actors; Biutiful will be a touchstone performance of Bardem’s for the rest of his career, on a par with his work in Before Night Falls and No Country for Old Men. The connections between characters and events crucial to enjoying Biutiful, and most of the spoilers are sad, so I’ll leave you to discover them on your own. Biutiful is full of striking performances from actors you’ve likely not seen before, especially Maricel Alvarez, as Uxbal’s fiery ex-wife. Biutiful is paced and framed in such a haunting way, you’d be justified in finding parts of it bordering on creepy. The talking to the dead subplot helps, as do visuals like Uxbal’s reflection not always matching exactly, or the doubles he sees hovering on the ceiling. Undoubtedly, though, you’ll find Biutiful beautiful.

After Biutiful, there’s a strong case to be made for watching Vicky Christina Barcelona, Woody Allen’s valentine to Spain, starring a healthy, randy, hilarious Javier Bardem. Seeing him in a prettier part of the country, enjoying the sun, eating well, might help you sleep at night. Instead, indulge me and watch Mona Lisa. It’s got a surprisingly similar lead character in an almost equally shady profession. And in Bob Hoskins, it’s got a retroactive addition to my Favorite Actors list.

Hoskins plays George, just out of prison, without the mob ties that probably put him there in the first place. His wife won’t allow him to contact his teenage daughter, and he’s broke. His former connections get him what must be some sort of mid-level thug job: chauffeur to a call girl named Simone (Cathy Tyson). He drives her to and from her appointments, they bicker, flirt, and I thought that was the movie. It would have been enough, frankly, since Hoskins and Tyson are such a great pair. They’re always a step away from danger, though, so any hints Mona Lisa drops at transitioning into romantic comedy territory are misleading. There’s a compelling subplot involving George’s search for a runaway who’s probably a hooker, as well as his attachment to another girl that he holds as some sort of representation of the missing girl, George’s daughter, and possibly even Simone.

Mona Lisa is like a cousin to Collateral. It leads us on as a car-set character piece, but is punctuated randomly by acts of violence that keep the characters weary and on edge. Mona Lisa was one of the first movies directed by Neil Jordan. I found it recently during a Criterion Collection binge (which also included The Long Good Friday, with another great Bob Hoskins performance) and was thrilled. What a great movie. Watching Mona Lisa, you might wish for a better life for the characters. They’re lonely and cynical, and go, every day, to jobs that might get them killed. Watching Biutiful, you’ll realize that for some people, those lives are an upgrade.

Biutiful: A

Mona Lisa: A