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All right, I'll say a few things about this depressing movie. Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is involved in illegal activities such as selling drugs and sweatshop labor, but he's a morally ambiguous character because he cares about his children (I think that's a standard movie trope for showing that a criminal has a good side) and has other positive traits. His life sucks, and then it sucks harder, and then it sucks even harder. That's essentially the plot of the movie.
Javier Bardem deserves the accolades he's received for his performance. Also, the film's visual imagery is stunning; indeed, I think someone should deconstruct this movie by cherry-picking the most striking images and showing them in random order, thus freeing them from the oppressive burden of the screenplay. I'll concede that some thought went into the screenplay; for example, I liked how a bit of dialogue that seemed like a throwaway line could prove to be important later in the film. It's even possible that the filmmakers were trying to make a statement about the plight of illegal immigrants, although that statement would probably have been more effective if the immigrants were more fully developed as individual characters (and seemed less like a plot device created specifically to make the protagonist's life more tormented) and the film didn't make it seem like everybody else's life also sucked.
This film is slow paced, ponderous, humorless, two-and-a-half hours long, and so unrelentingly miserable that I have to wonder if it was secretly funded by a pharmaceutical company to promote antidepressants. It seems to be based on the assumption that wallowing in suffering while constantly unveiling negative plot developments is the same as crafting a story with real depth. That thinking is like the mentality of an adolescent who believes that his poorly written, angst-ridden poetry is profound simply because it is dark and depressing. Except that the adolescent is sincerely expressing himself as best as he can, whereas the filmmakers squandered real talent with this project.