C+

The structural intricacy that marked Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s films with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, who’s gone on to direct his own scripts, is absent from “Biutiful,” which, except for an out-of-sequence prologue to which we return at the close, tells its story in straight chronological sequence. And the narrative is a pretty conventional—even soap-operatic—one, about a single father diagnosed with terminal cancer, who tries to arrange a decent life for his kids in the short amount of time remaining to him.

But the epic length of the picture—nearly two-and-a-half hours—is typical of Inarritu. And so is the almost unremittingly bleak tone. This is a tale that’s suffused with death, not only the impending demise of the protagonist, Uxbal (Javier Bardem)—a small-time hustler who acts as a middle-man between corrupt cops and the suppliers of illegal immigrant labor—but in myriad other ways. Uxbal and his brother Tito (Eduard Fernandez) are involved in exhuming the body of the long-dead father whom they never knew for cremation, in order to sell the cemetery plot he’s buried in. Uxbal and his Chinese employer Hai (Taisheng Cheng) are exploiting the workers in ways that will have a devastating result. And Uxbal has the power to communicate with the recently departed, a talent he employs to enhance his income through contributions from survivors, not all of whom accept his mystical pronouncements.

To add to Uxbal’s misery, his ex-wife Maramba (Maricel Alvarez) isn’t just cavorting with Tito, but is afflicted with bipolar disorder that she refuses to treat with meds—something that makes her potentially dangerous to the children. Fortunately there are a couple of women whom he can depend on a bit more—Lili (Lang Sofia Lin), the Chinese lady with whom he sometimes leaves the kids, and Ige (Diarytou Daff), the wife (Diaryatou Daff) of Ekweme (Cheick Ndiaye), one of the Senegalese illegals whom he tries to protect from the cops while they sell the knock-off purses the Chinese sweatshop laborers produce (as well as drugs on the side)—apparently another facet of his complicated business.

This is a gloomy tale, set in the seediest parts of Barcelona, which certainly doesn’t look like much of a tourist destination as captured in cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s deliberately rough, grungy images. And the decadent atmosphere is accentuated by frankly extraneous subplots, like that connecting Hai with a grimly manipulative gay lover (Luo Jin).

Still, “Biutiful” is enhanced by the presence of Bardem, who brings real dramatic heft to what’s essentially a cliché, making us believe the character’s ambivalence about how he makes a living. And he carries off the later reels, in which Uxbal gets more and more frail, convincingly (even if Inarritu’s decision to accompany his attacks with the sound of acoustic feedback raised to ear-splitting volume strikes a false note). The best parts of his performance, however, are to be found in his scenes with the children, Asa (Hanaa Bouchaib) and little Mateo (Guillermo Estrella). The kids aren’t portrayed as darlings—Mateo in particular is an often obstinate tyke—and the vacillation between affection and irritation in Bardem’s attitude toward them is genuinely moving.

The title of Inarritu’s film is obviously ironic; there’s nothing in the least lovely about the urban background against which it’s set, or the protagonist’s personal or familial situation, or the socio-economic milieu it portrays. And ultimately even Bardem, and particularly his interaction with Bouchaib and Estrella, can’t rescue what’s essentially a long dirge from feeling manipulative and forced. You can imagine “Biutiful” transformed into an American cable movie—cleaned up some, of course, and given a more blatantly uplifting close. From Inarritu one expects more than that.