Reviews of Babel

Moroccan kids aren't too bright.

Posted : 1 year, 1 month ago on 18 November 2008 05:00 (A review of Babel)

Nobody has ever told me that they enjoyed this film, and weighing in with a hefty 2.5 hours viewing time, I was a little reluctant at first to give it a try. Having missed the other two films in the supposed trilogy of Iñárritu's recent works, I had no idea what to expect, though I honestly expected a pretentious piece that only appealed to limp-wristed media students gunning for a new asset to adsorb into their already feeble persona.

In reality, the inclusion of Hollywood superstars would always deny Babel of a place amongst the 'cult classic' elite of independent films, but that doesn't mean it's easy watching for the average viewer. The film centres around three different groups of people in three very different situations. Although the characters are interlinked, they never interact with one another. In fact, some of the links between the characters are so tenuous that I almost expelled real laughter.

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, from what I can tell, are enduring a torrid and loveless marriage. This all changes when a young Moroccan mountain boy shoots the roof of a bus to test the range of his new hunting rifle. Somewhere in mid air, the bullet changes to an impossible trajectory and comes through a side window, severely wounding the pallid and gaunt Blanchett. You could be forgiven for thinking that she was already a corpse, but this event rekindles some deep-lying feeling of compassion in her husband and he endures to save her life.

Meanwhile, in Japan, a young girl deals with all the uneasy tribulations of youth with the added obstruction of being deaf and mute. Her ambition is to achieve a sense of belonging amongst her young peers, who are mostly ignorant and obnoxious to her disability.

Finally, the nanny of Pitt/Blanchett's children is a Mexican lady, forced to bring the youngsters along to a wedding in her native homeland. After an exuberant and exciting party, she makes the inspired decision to cross back to the USA with her nephew - about 100 times over the limit - as her chauffeur; something Border Patrol don't take too kindly to.

Guessing from the title of the film, Iñárritu clearly had some point to make about language. However, I really fail to see just exactly what that point was. The only storyline in which language was a barrier to functioning was for the Japanese girl who couldn't speak. Both the Mexican and Moroccan story lines all had characters who were multilingual, and the only real frustrations were vented between characters who spoke the same language as each other. The real problem I had with this film is the complete lack of closure from each of the story trails. There seemed to be absolutely no drastic consequences for any of the characters to deal with as a result of the decisions they'd made during the course of the film. The film felt ultimately pointless.

This is an immense shame, considering each story was actually entertaining. At no point was I bored with the chain of events, with the Japanese story being my particular favourite. I thought Babel would be leading to some big, intelligent culmination/disaster/bringing together, but none of this materialised into anything of note and that let the whole film down. Considering I've given it quite a generous rating despite this, I only wonder how great it could've been with a decent finale.

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A bullet can speak louder than words

Posted : 1 year, 5 months ago on 22 July 2008 04:49 (A review of Babel)

In Alejandro Iñarritu’s cinematic world, the order of things is subverted. Time is chopped and events are shuffled. Cars become, not media of safe transport, but catalysts of tragedy. And one fatal shot from a rifle becomes the means to salvation.Such is the case with his film, BABEL, the third of his trilogy of heart-crunchers, first of which was Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) and then 21 Grams.

In BABEL, just as in the former two, various lives from three different places intersect, but this time in a shooting accident involving two Moroccan herd boys and an American wife (Cate Blanchett) and her American husband (a gray-haired, 10 years older Brad Pitt)on a bus tour around exotic Morocco. The two Moroccan boys engage in a fatal target practice on a passing bus to test the range of their new rifle and accidentally shots a sleeping American woman aboard (Blanchett). The reverberations of that one rifle shot spans miles across seas: In San Diego, a Mexican nanny is forced to take along her American ward of two blond kids to her son’s wedding in Mexico. Meanwhile, in Japan, a deaf-mute high school girl struggles to feel wanted and understood by normal boys her age.

BABEL is a film about the very thing that binds us: language. But Iñarritu challenges the notion of language, both spoken and signed, as effective conveyors of the message. It also serves to destroy, to create barriers, to deafen ears. What he offers instead is this: A bullet communicates better than words. It is not made to destroy lives but to destroy the veneer of people’s indifference. In its process of destruction, it exposes people’s fears and hopes.

Here, Iñarritu delivers.

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Babel review

Posted : 1 year, 5 months ago on 8 July 2008 01:24 (A review of Babel)

O filme tem uma história boa - o clássico caso do filme que
conta tantas histórias diferentes, mas que no final você
descobre que há uma conexão entre todas. Fiquei intrigada
durante boa parte do filme, aquele desespero em saber o que
aconteceria nas próximas cenas, mas tudo acompanhado daquela
certeza de que haveria algo que colocaria todos os personagens
do filme bem próximos pelos acontecimentos. Apesar de tudo isso,
a direção não deixa a desejar. Nota 6.

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Cate wet Blankett.

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 9 May 2008 07:04 (A review of Babel)

I loved the 'foreign' story lines in this film; but found myself bored out of my skin in the Pitt/Blanchett segments.

I cant pin point exactly what made these bits so dull; if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it was Cate Blanchett. I think Cate has a tendency to become easily dull and vapid in any role. I fear she's so used to playing the 'virgin queen' she'll never act well again (if she ever did).

Aside from the sparodic moments of the dull american storyline, I was totally encaptivated by the storylines of the 2 morrocan brothers, the mexican nanny and the Japanese, deaf girl. A whole movie dedicated to each of of these would have been amazing; but Pitt and Blanchett kept dragging it back to 'Hollywood'...and it didnt work.

I still give this film and 8/10, purely due to how interesting the other stroylines were. But I think Babel has taught us that independent films are independent films and hollywood is hollywood; and never the twain shall meet.

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Ambitious but not without flaws

Posted : 2 years, 7 months ago on 25 May 2007 11:21 (A review of Babel)

Alejandro González Iñárritu never fails to impress me with his knack for weaving together disparate storylines. Amores Perros and 21 Grams have both taken pride of place on my DVD shelves for a while now, but Babel I would say is his most ambitious effort to date.

Is it his best? I'll need a second watch to fully decide. However, my main doubts after one viewing all lay within the Japanese section of the film. It felt like it was there to serve as filler, really wasn't all that essential to the plot. Japan, compared to the other two stories characters, depictions of the countries customs and cultural surroundings seemed a sight more stereotypical and cliched. Nevertheless all three stories did leave an impact. Hard hitting, well acted, socially conscious drama at its best. A good conclusion to the Iñárritu/Arriaga trilogy, now to watch them back to back.



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Overrated

Posted : 2 years, 9 months ago on 17 March 2007 11:53 (A review of Babel)

Por empezar, es eterna. Yo entiendo que quizas este acostumbrada a ver cine yankee y sus tiempos cortos. Pero cual era la necesidad de ver a un marroquí masturbandose pensando en su hermana? o a una americana con un tiro en el cuello en una aldea africana meando mientras besa a su marido?

Entiendo el mensaje. Entiendo su link al titulo. Entiendo lo que el director quiso hacer. Pero desde mi punto de vista, le salió mal. Las historias fueron demasiado forzadas para cruzarse (el japones le regalo un rifle a un guia? c'mooon) y el único momento en el que sentí algo mas que aburrimiento fue al ver la angustia de la mexicana cuando tuvo que dejar a los nenes en el desierto. El resto.. aburrido.

Además, como es que los unicos personajes con "final feliz" con la pareja americana y sus hijos?
Demasiado facil...

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Must-see

Posted : 2 years, 9 months ago on 7 March 2007 02:29 (A review of Babel)

This film is cathartic.

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Diversidad y Falta de Comunicación

Posted : 2 years, 10 months ago on 5 March 2007 08:23 (A review of Babel)

Es difícil catalogar en un género específico las películas de Alejandro González Iñárritu. Así como es difícil decir con exactitud cual es la temática principal de Babel. Lo que sí puedo decir con certeza es que es una de las mejores películas que he visto últimamente.
Se cuentan, al igual que en Amores Perros, tres historias, que son más o son una, queda librado a la interpretación del espectador. Por un lado en Marruecos una mujer americana es alcanzada por una bala disparada accidentalmente por un niño de una familia de pastores marroquíes, su marido deberá afrontar, lejos de su cultura, un sin número de desventuras antes de poder llevarla a un hospital. En San Diego, una inmigrante mexicana decide cruzar la frontera para asistir a la boda de su hijo en México llevando consigo a dos niños americanos a quienes está cuidando en ausencia de sus padres, pero los problemas comienzan cuando intenta volver a cruzar la frontera para regresar a Estados Unidos. En Japón una adolescente sordomunda, cuyo padre viudo está involucrado en una investigación policial, sufre la falta de su madre, los embates de la adolescencia y, lo que es ícono de la película, la falta de comunicación con su entorno.
Review Completo: http://maguila.com.ar/babel/

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Babel

Posted : 3 years, 1 month ago on 11 November 2006 06:22 (A review of Babel)

This movie was well made, but it won't have you leaving with a smile on your face. The movie revolves around a rifle and a stray bullet. Four story lines revolve around this event. One takes place in Morroco, another in Japan, and the last takes place in San Diego and Mexico.
Although the stories are attached to each other, they each have there own plot. I really enjoyed the way that the music and the feel for the movie changed with each setting and culture. This really adds to the feel and emotions for each location.
There are subtitles so be prepared to do some reading. The movie has messages in the subplots that are pretty powerful and hard hitting. Don't go to this movie if you are looking for light entertainment. The movie packs a strong punch that will leave you emotionally drained.

Flash

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