Biutiful (Directors Suite) (Blu-ray) (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-Behind Biutiful: Director's Flip Notes Interviews-Character Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Biutiful Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	147:41 (Case: 142)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Alejandro González Iñárritu
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Javier Bardem Maricel Álvarez Hanaa Bouchaib Guillermo Estrella Eduard Fernández Cheikh Ndiaye Diaryatou Daff Cheng Tai Shen Luo Jin George Chibuikwem Chukwuma Lang Sofia Lin
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$29.95	Music	Gustavo Santaolalla

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Spanish DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (4608Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Biutiful (pronounced Beautiful) is the fourth feature from the gifted Mexican director, Alejandro González Iñárritu. His three previous films, Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, all feature multi-layered narratives and focus on converging characters. In Biutiful however, Iñárritu breaks this cycle by focusing on a central character with a linear structured narrative. All of Iñárritu's films tend to deal with the darker side of humanity and for this reason some people tend to shy away from them. However, it must be said that each of his films conclude on the side of optimism and Biutiful is certainly no different.

     Uxbal (Javier Bardem) has a psychic connection with the afterlife and, for a small fee, he comforts grieving families of the recently departed. However, his main source of income comes from an involvement in the organisation of illegal migrant workers from Africa and China. Uxbal is devoted to his two young children and he struggles to give them a stable upbringing. He is estranged from his frequently volatile wife, Marambra (Maricel Álvarez), who has a bipolar disorder. Through all this though Uxbal loves her dearly and Marambra is still very much involved in their lives.

     Uxbal's own mortality is shattered by news that he has advanced terminal cancer. The prosperous aspirations he had for his children now develop some urgency. When a terrible tragedy occurs, partly through Uxbal's negligence, he begins to reconcile past indiscretions and starts to build a lasting legacy for his children.

     Javier Bardem thoroughly deserved his best actor award at Cannes for this film. In my opinion he also deserved the Academy Award in the same year, but lost to Colin Firth in The King's Speech. As you might expect, production values here are first class and performances from the entire cast are superb. Be warned, there is a scene late in the film between Uxbal and his daughter that is as moving as anything I've seen in recent years.

     Like all of Alejandro González Iñárritu's films, Biutiful is sure to provoke discussion. It will also stay in your thoughts for many days. Highly recommended.

Video

     Biutiful is presented on Blu-ray with a 1080p transfer in the correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It has been encoded using MPEG-4 AVC compression.

     As you would expect, the Blu-ray transfer is quite impressive. Darker scenes do exhibit some film grain, but there's little doubting this would be inherent in the source material. Apart from this, the transfer displays decent sharpness and clarity throughout the film. Shadow detail was also excellent.

     Iñárritu uses a very dark and sombre colour palette. As such, the palette consists heavily of grey and blue tones, with virtually no vibrant colour at all. All colours were beautifully balanced, with no obvious problems.

     Artefacts of any description were not an issue.

     English subtitles are available on the disc. They are easy to read and are displayed in three colours - yellow, light blue and white. However, the subtitles are burned in and cannot be removed from screen, which will no doubt annoy anyone lucky enough to speak Spanish.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There is one audio track on the Blu-ray, Spanish DTS -HD 5.1.

     Although my comprehension of the Spanish language is negligible, dialogue quality seemed to be excellent. Audio sync also appeared to be trouble free.

     The music score is credited to the Argentine composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. His score enhances the ambience of the film without being overwhelming.

     Biutiful is mostly a dialogue driven film. Surround presence is predominantly ambient sound, although a few scenes delivered some nice directional effects. Likewise, the subwoofer was subtle, but effective.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Behind Biutiful: Director's Flip Notes (21:39)

     A video diary by director, Alejandro González Iñárritu. Despite its rather short length, this piece delivers some interesting behind-the-scenes footage.

Interviews

• Javier Bardem (Uxbal) (3:14)
• Maricel Álvarez (Marambra) (2:36)
• Eduard Fernández (Tito) (2:30)

Biutiful Crew (4:01)

     A nice tribute to all the crew members of Biutiful.

     The US Region A edition of Biutiful is almost identical to this reviewed edition with a couple of small inclusions. The Region A edition features the addition of French and Spanish subtitles as well as English. All subtitles are removable. Both editions feature exactly the same extras, but the Region A includes the theatrical trailer.

     Alejandro González Iñárritu's fourth feature is another triumph from this very talented filmmaker. Biutiful is a thought provoking and deeply moving drama. Another stunning performance from Javier Bardem only reinforces his current standing as one the world's finest actors.

     As you would expect, the Blu-ray transfer is excellent.

     Unfortunately, the selection of extras is interesting, but a little light-on. The interviews in particular are really just padding.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall