The majority of this picture is sloppy. It's underwritten and poorly directed. The film doesn't seem to have a conscious storyline. The only saving grace is Javier Bardem's performance. He's fantastic. It only furthers to prove his talent when you factor in what I feel about the screenplay. It's not the way people talk and seems fakey (if you haven't seen Underworld with Denis Leary and Joe Mantegna that word might be lost on you).
Uxbal (Bardem) is a tragic hero and father of two (one is aged 7 while the other is aged 9) who's sensing the danger of death. About twelve minutes into the film we learn, along with Uxbal, that he has cancer. He is given only a couple of months provided his body reacts well to chemotherapy. The entire film is about his downward spiral.
I've seen Babel and 21 Grams and I can tell you that I don't see any real substantial talent in this film's director/co-writer. Alejandro González Iñárritu strikes me as lazy. Rather than spend any portion of his films getting you to care enough about his characters he simply drops tragedy upon tragedy on you. A director like David Cronenberg is a master at mixing the decay and tradgedy of a character with a hope of redemption. Iñárritu is not a master at that.
As I said the only saving grace is Javier Bardem's performance. In this film Bardem manages to create a multi-faceted character that grabs hold of the audience in such a magnificent way that it's easy to understand why Bardem has been nominated for acting Oscars more than twice. Sporting a ponytail and his usual physique Bardem has the appearance of a lion and yet at several moments in the film he plays Uxbal as a mouse uncertain of his future but unwilling to accept his fate. At one point he tells the doctor that he forgot to fast prior to having his blood drawn in the hope that maybe the tests were wrong. "Fasting is only a formality" the doctor says. One could slow down the next shot of Uxbal and pinpoint the exact moment that his soul is crushed. If not for Bardem's performance I would say skip it.
★★1/2
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