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Review #306 of 365
Movie Review of Babel (2006) [R] 142 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $13.75
Where Viewed: Landmark Chez Artiste, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 13 November 2006
Time: 8:45 p.m.
Film's Official Website
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Review Dedicated to: Sra. Engstrom and Sra. Marsh of Columbine High School
Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams)
Written by: Guillermo Arriaga (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada)
Idea by: Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro González Iñárritu
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Brad Pitt (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) • Cate Blanchett (The Aviator) • Gael García Bernal (The Science of Sleep) • Adriana Barraza (Amores perros) • Kôji Yakusho (Memoirs of a Geisha)
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Were it not for last year's Best Picture-winning, and brilliant film, Crash (2006), Bable might stand out a bit more. Certainly, there are many similarities between the two films. The latter however, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu based on a script by Guillermo Arriaga from an idea they shared, lacks the complexity of the roles as they collide in Crash. While the stories behind the development of Babel, might have made just as interesting a movie, much of this does not translate directly into visible touches on screen, except, perhaps to those intimate with its creation. Certainly, nonetheless, Babel is still an extraordinary cinematic creation where four story strands form a tapestry that inexplicably unravels into a single thread. It all begins when the father of two Moroccan boys gives them a hunting rifle to scare off jackals who prey upon the family's flock of goats. That seemingly innocuous event sets off a chain reaction of events that circles the glove touching the lives of three other families. The connection, is more immediate to two of the families as the boys go out and target practice at a tourist bus, accidentally piercing the shoulder of Susan (Cate Blanchett), wife of Richard (Brad Pitt), and mother of two children left back in the United States in the care of long-time, illegal alien, Amelia (Adriana Barraza). The fourth family involved, is that of the Yasujiro (Koji Yakusho) and Cheiko (Rinko Kikuchi) a father daughter team that has grown distant after the suicide of Cheiko's mother. Yasujiro gave the rifle to the father of the Moroccan as a gesture of thanks when he served as his guide on a hunting trip in northern Africa. So, this tie, discovered by Moroccan police investigating the bus attack to prove to the US government it was not a terrorist attack, is a very loose connection at best. It allows for the film to travel to Tokyo to tell the story of deaf-mute Cheiko as she navigates the harsh urban reality of a generation consumed and mesmerized by sound. This weak link to the central and more connected stories dampens the impact of the collective story. Also absent from Babel, but obvious in Crash, is the central notion of the stories. While Crash was all about the ugly beast of racism in modern USA culture and how it still thrives, Babel is more about social isolation and the phenomenon of the Ugly American as exemplified too often by Richard as he lashes out at everyone with whom he comes in contact after his wife is shot. After threatening to kill the other tourists on the bus if they worked to convince the bus to leave the small town where a kindly local has brought the bus as the nearest source of a qualified doctor, he threatens and angrily accuses the local officials of doing nothing to help his wife, nearly spits in their faces and the face of the generous man who has opened his home in the face of this tragedy and found him the doctor, and as if all that thanklessness weren't enough, at the end, he starts throwing money at the him as the evacuation helicopter is about to take off as if he is clueless to the fact that the locals did not help him for money, but because they actually cared to help. The film brings the stark contrast of standards of living from the goat herders of Morocco to the gleaming glass tower condominiums of Tokyo causing one to wonder exactly how this disparity in the world emerged and which people living at which standards actually have a better life. Cheiko, certainly, does not have a great life. Feeling no sense of affection from any angle and feeling so isolated by her lack of hearing, she begins to use her body and her sexuality confusing this gratification for real attention. Her behavior is crude and disturbing, but understandable and tragic in the context of her life. The teenagers in her circle, however, are preoccupied with drugs, alcohol, sex, music and little else, actually, that would contribute positively to the larger culture. Sadly, this is a phenomenon not confined to any one culture on the planet, but seems a product of a youth worldwide that is just, plain lost.
"… a film of incredible depth and complexity "
Another chief complexity of Babel is that the script occasionally errs in distinguishing fate from choice. For example, as it so happens, Richard and Susan were supposed to find someone to take care of their kids so that Amelia would be able to drive with her nephew, Santiago (Gael García Bernal) to Tiajuana for her son's wedding. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, Susan's injury prevented Richard from having the time to find that person. So, out of frustration, Amelia tries to find someone else to watch the kids, and when she fails at that, she decides to take the kids with her, illegally, to Mexico to her son's wedding. The trip does provide some culture shock for the kids which was probably good on the one hand, but on the other hand they are exposed to things their parents might not have wished them to see. Worse though, is that upon attempting to return to the USA, she lacks letters of permission from the parents to have taken the kids across the border, and rather than stopping to get things figured out, Santiago decides to floor the engine and escape. Eventually, he ends up stranding them alone, without water, and no sense of where they are in the middle of the desert when his plan to evade border patrol agents fails and he is unable to come back for them. This chaotic and horrifying event was the direct result of a choice that Amelia made. It was not fate. It was a choice that Santiago made to run the border. It might have been a choice too for the very, little boys to shoot at the bus, but they were too little to realize the implications. In fact, they were convinced until the saw the bus suddenly stop, that the bullets couldn't even go that far. In any case, the implications of fate vs. choice were not satisfactorily examined in the film. In some ways, they were treated with the same emotional consequences that, clearly, they do not warrant.
The stand out performances came not from big names Gael García Bernal, Brad Pitt, or Cate Blanchett—who spends most of her screen time too wounded to act—but from Rinko Yakusho and Adriana Barraza. Ms Yakusho's haunting eyes act like sirens of the sea desperate to gain any measure of attention only to lure you in and smash you against the rocky demons of her angry soul. Adriana Barraza delivers a compelling performance as a woman who learns the very hard way of the consequences of her decisions as she wanders the desert in high heels looking for water and help, only to return to find the kids she left alone are gone. There is no doubt of the depth of talent of either Alejandro González Iñárritu or Guillermo Arriaga. Babel is a film of incredible depth and complexity. A few additions and examinations here and there could have made this film into a masterpiece for the ages. Instead, it will be one of the top films of the year, but the not the best.
The stand out performances came not from big names Gael García Bernal, Brad Pitt, or Cate Blanchett—who spends most of her screen time too wounded to act—but from Rinko Yakusho and Adriana Barraza. Ms Yakusho's haunting eyes act like sirens of the sea desperate to gain any measure of attention only to lure you in and smash you against the rocky demons of her angry soul. Adriana Barraza delivers a compelling performance as a woman who learns the very hard way of the consequences of her decisions as she wanders the desert in high heels looking for water and help, only to return to find the kids she left alone are gone. There is no doubt of the depth of talent of either Alejandro González Iñárritu or Guillermo Arriaga. Babel is a film of incredible depth and complexity. A few additions and examinations here and there could have made this film into a masterpiece for the ages. Instead, it will be one of the top films of the year, but the not the best.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring Babel (2006)
Cast Members
Brad Pit
• Cate Blanchett• Gael Garcia BernaAdriana Barraza• Koji Yakusho• Rinko Kikuchi
Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer
Guillermo Arriaga
| CD Sountrack | DVD | VHS |
| Related DVD |
Babel (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Were it not for last year's Best Picture-winning, and brilliant film, Crash (2006), Bable might stand out a bit more. Certainly, there are many similarities between the two films. The latter however, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu based on a script by Guillermo Arriaga from an idea they shared, lacks the complexity of the roles as they collide in Crash. Nonetheless, Babel is still an extraordinary cinematic creation where four story strands form a tapestry that inexplicably unravels into a single thread. The stand out performances came not from Gael García Bernal, Brad Pitt, or Cate Blanchett; but from Rinko Yakusho and Adriana Barraza. Babel is a film of incredible depth and complexity. A few additions and examinations here and there could have made this film into a masterpiece for the ages. Instead, it will be one of the top films of the year, but the not the best.
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