Holy Hannah is this a beautiful looking trailer. It doesn’t really give us much to go on in terms of plot or characterization, but you can find all of that pretty easily by doing a little web work. I know this was a pretty big hit at TIFF last month and if this trailer coupled with Iñárritu’s past efforts are any indication, I think we’re in for a real treat in Biutiful.
The film follows Uxbal (Bardem), an underworld figure and devoted single dad, through his attempts to reconcile with a past love and secure a future for his children as his own death draws near. Biutiful represents something of a departure for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, even as it confirms the pervasive bleakness of his worldview. Less invested in themes of fate and convergence than his previous work, this gritty, slow-burning melodrama nonetheless offers a very long descent into a private purgatory, and its scant emotional rewards can’t shake off the sense of a prodigiously gifted filmmaker stuck in a grim rut.
