I could feed you that tired old line about Javier Bardem delivering the performance of a lifetime etc. etc. in Biutiful , but come on. Why lie? The reality is that Bardem has delivered such richly drawn, deeply layered work for years, from his role as doomed Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls to the right-to-die proponent Ramon Sampedro in The Sea Inside and even the affectless, coin-tossing killer Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men — all canonical characters of the last decade, all justifiably Oscar-nominated (with the latter winning). It is fair to say Biutiful ‘s struggling, terminally ill Barcelonan eclipses them all; so when will Bardem receive the awards-season recognition he deserves?
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Javier Bardem on Biutiful, Barcelona, and the Economy of Exploitation (Oscars Included)
