Babel

Year: 2006
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Boubker Ait El Caid, Said Tarchani, Mohamed Akhzam

Once in a while, a unique film comes across your path that pretty much changes all the rules (or most of them) and leaves you with something different that you rarely get from other films. Babel is one such film.

Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who gave us the terrific 21 Grams, Babel features 4 stories taking place in 3 different countries across the globe, and presented in various languages. The stories are distinct from each other, but somewhat related.

In Morocco, a goatherd buys a rifle and hands it to his two sons, so that they can use it to protect the herd from jackals. The boys decide to test the rifle on a tour bus, and thanks to that, an American woman gets shot in the neck. Her husband, who is currently trying to reconcile with her after the death of one of their children, frantically attempts to get help, but is hampered by the language barrier and being in the middle of nowhere on the rough Moroccan plains. The couple's babysitter back home in the US, needs to attend her son's wedding in Mexico, but can't find a substitute to take care of their two children, so she brings them along. However, she faces trouble in taking them back home across the border after the wedding when border patrol mistakes her for an illegal immigrant. The original owner of the rifle, a businessman in Japan, faces hardship in communicating with his deaf-mute daughter, who in her fragile state of being lonely and misunderstood, resorts to desperate measures to get attention from the people around her.

Every story starts out normally, with a hint of disaster lurking, and then trouble begins and gets worse from there. The boys in Morocco try to hide the fact that they shot someone in an act of irresponsibility, then face dire consequences when their actions are discovered. The husband, trapped in a place where no one understands him, has to depend on the only Moroccan he can find that speaks English to help his wife, but the political impact from the incident hampers help from arriving. Amelia, the babysitter, succeeds in taking care of the children, until she gets to the border and all hell breaks loose and she ends up being lost in the middle of nowhere. Chieko, the deaf-mute girl uses every extreme tactic imaginable to get people to make contact with her, but it only sinks her even further down the line of dignity. All four are compelling tales that not only piques your interest, but makes you root for the characters as well.

As in 21 Grams, Inarritu distorts the timeline for the 4 stories while switching back and forth between them, and he keeps them related and yet distanced from each other enough for us to be able to follow them without getting confused. He and fellow writer Guillermo Arriaga once again come up with a story that leaves an impact on you and delivers a worthy message to the audience. The message in this case, is miscommunication, hence the title Babel. Babel refers to the tower of Babel, as in the Biblical story of how men built that tower to reach the heavens. It angered God who scattered the men across the earth and changed their way of speaking to each other in the same language.

What about the cast? Well, I can say that everyone, from the well known to the unknown, did splendidly. Pitt & Blanchett are phenomenal, as expected. Pitt plays the desperate husband so convincingly, you'll feel for him. Blanchett turns in an understated performance that still compells. She can do no wrong. Barraza plays Amelia well, as the babysitter who tries very hard to look after her charges even when the odds are stacked against her. Kikuchi, who isn't a deaf-mute in real life, conveys Chieko's pain realistically with her facial expressions. Her desperation is well-conveyed on screen. Boubker and Said, who play the two boys, also do not disappoint. These two, and the actors who play their family, look like the kind who don't usually act in movies, and yet they perform magnificently. As far as casting goes, this film is perfect. On a related note, Barraza & Kikuchi are both nominated for their roles in the Oscar category of supporting actress. Babel also received 5 other nominations for the Oscars this year for Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing and Score.

To be perfectly fair and frank, this isn't the kind of film you'll want to see over and over, due to its length (142 mins) and subject matter. But it will give you something different you won't expect from those summer blockbusters. Even if it doesn't win Best Picture, it certainly has made a considerable impact on viewers. It did for me. (4.5/5)