---
title: "Biutiful: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/biutiful/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/biutiful"
critics_score: 58
critics_reviews: 23
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Biutiful (2010): what the critics said

Critics' score 58 from 23 reviews: 11 positive, 5 mixed, 7 negative.

Almost every critic agrees about Javier Bardem. His performance as Uxbal, a Barcelona hustler with a terminal diagnosis and two children to provide for, is called restrained, dignified and controlled, the best work he has done, and the thing that holds the film together. The photography of the city’s poorer quarters is the other point of agreement, praised even by those who dislike the film. The warmer reviews find the closing scenes raw and moving.

The spread is wide. Most critics accept the film is grim; the argument is whether it is grim to any purpose. Nearly half find the run time, the parade of misfortune and the supernatural strand ponderous or self-important, and a few call it misery for its own sake. The Independent gives it one star out of five and finds it pious and short of energy; The AV Club calls it an oppressive dirge. Reviews written from its festival premiere are markedly colder than those on its later release.

## The Hollywood Reporter — Kirk Honeycutt

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 14 October 2010. 

The critic describes the film as a gorgeous, melancholy tone poem about love, fatherhood and guilt, with some scenes absolutely wrenching to behold. Bardem delivers a knockout performance as the complex hero.

[Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/biutiful-film-review-29616/)

## The Times — Kate Muir

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2011. 

The award-winning film is overcooked and melodramatic yet brilliant, leaving audiences sobbing, thanks to a searing central performance by Bardem as a hustler facing mortality.

[Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/biutiful-0pjr3l86frt)

## Time Out — Trevor Johnston

Rating 4/5. 25 January 2011. 

The critic praises Javier Bardem's career-best, restrained performance as the lead, which grounds the film's sprawling story of suffering, family, and compassion. They highlight how the film evokes strong emotional responses despite its chaotic elements and grim tone.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/biutiful)

## Total Film — Kevin Harley

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 26 January 2011. 

The review says the film is ferocious filmmaking with lyrical austerity and conviction, benefiting from its linear structure and fierce focus on Bardem, though it occasionally over-reaches; the closing scenes hit raw emotional nerves effectively.

[Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/biutiful-review/)

## Empire — Andrew Male

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 13 December 2010. 

The critic notes that the single-location focus and Bardem's weary, dignified performance give the film a profound effect and edge it toward a new kind of greatness as a modern classical tragedy, despite its heavy parade of misfortune.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/biutiful-review/)

## Los Angeles Times — Betsy Sharkey

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 29 December 2010. 

The critic singles out Bardem's staggering depth and the collaboration with Iñárritu for mining profound sadness into a story of hope and protection of loved ones amid terminal illness. The film is faulted for trying to say too much, creating an overwhelming emotional load.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-dec-29-la-et-biutiful-20101229-story.html)

## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2011. 

The film is impressive and arrestingly made with a distinctive created world and visual poetry, but it is also exasperating, unconvincing and verges on misery porn.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jan/27/biutiful-review)

## The Telegraph

Rating ***. 

It is an oppressively bleak but intermittently powerful heavyweight dramatic experience, carried by Bardem's measured and moving performance as the doomed Uxbal.

[Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8287044/Biutiful-review.html)

## Evening Standard

Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. 

The review finds the film remorselessly downbeat and overlong with grim fatalism that can seem ponderous, but praises its brilliant shooting and especially Javier Bardem's masterly central performance as the highlight.

[Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/javier-bardem-at-his-alltime-best-in-biutiful-7423399.html)

## The New York Times — A.O. Scott

Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 29 December 2010. 

The critic praises Javier Bardem's passionate, physically charismatic yet sensitive performance as the film's central strength in this gritty story of an underworld figure and dying father. However, the narrative is seen as straining for emotional credibility it does not fully earn.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/movies/29biut.html)

## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez

Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 27 December 2010. 

The critic notes the director's continued appetite for overstatement and a cynical view of life, but praises Bardem's performance and finds poignant moments in the reflection on inheritance and bodily decay.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/biutiful/)

## The AV Club — Scott Tobias

Rating C-. 28 December 2010. 

The critic sees the film as an irritating, oppressive 150-minute dirge full of piled-up tragedies and magical realism that fails to relieve the gloom. Bardem and Álvarez deliver fine work amid the excess.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/biutiful-1798166861)

## Variety — Justin Chang

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2010. Festival review. 

The critic highlights Bardem's powerful, beautifully controlled performance and the film's raw visual style as strengths in this linear character study of a doomed father. It is criticized as a long, heavy descent into purgatory with scant emotional rewards and a sense of the director stuck in a grim rut.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/2010/film/markets-festivals/biutiful-1117942786/)

## IndieWire — Eric Kohn

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2010. Festival review. 

The review calls the film a misguided melodrama, criticizing its excesses while noting the director's ambitions.

[Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/cannes-review-misguided-melodrama-alejandro-gonzalez-inarritus-biutiful-55096/)

## Screen Daily

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2010. Festival review. 

The review finds the film overextended and leaden with overbearing portentousness and unrelenting grimness, criticizing its solemn handling of bleak social issues despite strong cinematography. It notes Bardem's dignified performance but doubts the redemption arc.

[Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/biutiful/5014029.article)

## The Independent

Rating 1/5. 28 January 2011. 

The critic calls the film 147 minutes of handwringing miserabilism and a glum drama of good intentions gone wrong, faulting its pious self-importance and lack of energy after the director's split from his regular screenwriter.

[Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/barney-s-version-15-biutiful-15-3-5-1-5-2196231.html)

## Collider — Dave Trumbore

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 7 July 2011. 

The film is a relentless, bleak character study centered on Uxbal's desperate attempts to provide for his children and seek redemption amid cancer, crime, and family turmoil. Bardem's performance anchors the intimate drama as its strongest element.

[Read the review](https://collider.com/biutiful-blu-ray-review/)

## Digital Spy — Mayer Nissim

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2010. Festival review. 

The critic praises the heartbreaking story and Javier Bardem's performance but notes the supernatural element is unnecessary.

[Read the review](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/cannes-film-festival/a220624/cannes-2010-biutiful/)

## Eye for Film — Val Kermode

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 18 January 2011. 

The critic praises the film as one with real heart about how life becomes more precious as it runs out, highlighting Javier Bardem's stronger, more all-encompassing performance than in any of his previous films as the standout element.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/biutiful-film-review-by-val-kermode)

## The Skinny — Keir Roper-Caldbeck

Rating 3/5. 9 May 2011. 

The film is relentlessly grim, with moments of cinematic beauty from the photography and a towering performance by Bardem, but ultimately leaves one wishing for some relief from the suffering.

[Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/biutiful)

## HeyUGuys — Simon Gallagher

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2010. Festival review. 

The review finds Biutiful a tedious slog despite technical achievements and strong visuals of Barcelona's dark underbelly, but singles out Javier Bardem's mesmerizing, deeply layered performance as the film's main saving grace.

[Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/heyuguys-at-cannes-2010-biutiful-review/)

## Paste — Paste Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 4 January 2011. 

Biutiful piles on misery and heavy-handed symbolism without cohering into a compelling story despite its linear focus on one protagonist. Bardem and some individual scenes show promise, but the film feels like an overlong rough cut full of clichés.

[Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu/biutiful-review)

## The Playlist

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 17 May 2010. Festival review. 

The critic calls the film impeccably acted and wonderfully shot but ultimately not particularly interesting, noting that its sprawl and lack of a central emotional anchor make it a non-starter despite Bardem's commanding lead turn.

[Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/cannes-2010-review-alejandro-gonzalez-20100517/)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/biutiful.md