Doesn't Javier Bardem look like he's retarded in this movie?

I thought he looked kinda retarded when he was eating the flower. And when he was in the whore-house and he says he's waiting for his love.
When he's older, I think he just looks way too innocent, but not retarded.

Karev: Why is he suturing his own face?
Yang: To turn me on.

[deleted]

I kept thinking how awfully pathetic Florentino was. Then again, this whole movie was rubbish, which was disappointing, especially considering I usually like Benjamin Bratt, Javier Bardem, and John Leguizamo.

"To flee is life; to linger is death."

Haha!! LOL!! I'm watching as I pulled up imdb, and your thread title made me immediately laugh out loud!!!
Yes he looks retarded! And sounds retarded too!! Too funny.....
Stretching that acting skill!!!
Think about it though, He looked kind of retarded in 'No Country for Old Men" too...I love an actor who inspires your interest in his/her character without having to speak.....
Wonder what he'd have been like as 'rainman' lol.....

He looks 'retarded' because we are meant to ask ourselves whether Florentino is a fool or a romantic hero. That is a pervading theme throughout the movie. In the beginning he puts up the wrong flag when a ship is entering port. He just won't accept that the woman he loves has moved on. He wastes his life in idle dreams. In short, he's a big loser. Or is he? As he grows older we are meant to question his life decisions from this context. For example, adopting promescuity as a cure for his obsession with Fermina, or deciding to become rich in order to impress her one day. What emerges from this tale is a man, seemingly clueless, who lives his life the best way he knows how & finally achieves a level of wisdom unattained by many. I think the theme is executed very powerfully in this film. Florentino is almost like a Forest Gump or Harvie Krumpet. But in the end - hey - he gets the girl.

Who would have thought that Anton Chigurh could play Florentino Ariza?

He acts differently because the movie is set in another culture. Next time you see an Englishman in American, or watch American tourists in London, watch them.
They stand out because they from an entirely different culture.

Americans understand Anton Chigurh because he is simply another character in another assassin film. Most Americans do not understand a man who enters poetry contests and is disappointed when he does not win.

As an American, I do not find Fermina particularly attractive. My friend,
an Italian, is ready to abandon his job and try to find and court her.

I wonder who looks or sounds retarded... be careful: words can come back to you like boomerangs!

" And I discovered to my joy, that it is life and not death that has no limits"
(last sentence of the film)

I wish you'd be in love some day!

In the book he is described as an awkward looking young man who no one would look at twice, that would wear his father's suits which prematurely aged him. At one point ate so many gardenias , whose fragrance reminded him of Fermina, that he threw up. So his portrayal is quite accurate. Except that Javier looked so aged throughout whereas the character was really young in the first half of the book. Dr. Juvenal was the suave, sophisticated man.