Babel

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Apr 2, 2019 Babel is a film dedicated to telling us the importance of communication and how in todayâ(TM)s world it can fail us. This film however does not follow in the footsteps of the tower of Babel but in the actual babbling of children. The film develops four separate story lines that seem to be completely disconnected but through no real mystery end up being related in dumb ways. We meet a married couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) traveling together through Morocco in an attempt to reconnect but failing at every turn. We also meet a young shepherd boy and his brother who accidentally shoot at the bus the young couple is traveling in seriously injuring the wife. While this is going on the couples Mexican nanny (Adriana Barraza) takes the coupleâ(TM)s two children with her to Mexico for her sonâ(TM)s wedding when the couple cannot return do to the shooting. Finally we meet Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a deaf-mute Japanese school girl struggling with the suicide of her mom and a Dad she doesn't communicate well with. This film suffers from the same thing that Crash did, so much going on and poorly done story telling. No character gets enough story time to make us actually care about them and in most cases they become annoying or give us no reason to sympathize with them. The characters are well acted but written as two dimensional figures portraying simple images. While each actor is very good they are never given enough to take their character from a bland image to a deep person. The so called connections between each story is also supposed to be discovered by us slowly as the film goes on with Chieko's story leading to the final connection. The problem is within the first 15 minutes or so we know exactly how the couple, shepherd boy, and nanny fit together and in the next ten can simply deduce Chieko's role. It is a juvenile line played out quickly and ends the movie before we have a chance to care (not that we have anything to care about). It is also like Crash in that in its attempt to get its point across hits us in the head with extremes instead of making us look at the true issues we each face. Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga wish for us to see different ways in which we fail at communication not just with language and strangers but in emotion with those close to us. This is a great goal but we don't really care about these people and can see clearly where they fail. We are given extremes and can walk away saying that I am glad I am not like that. The film makers could have served their goal better by clearly focusing on the family and how they may communicate well with others outside the family but cannot convey simple things to those they are closest to. True it isn't as dramatic as they may want or as artsy but would have been a lot better than the confused and shallow story they gave us. I also have to mention the use of disgusting and useless sexual content in this film, which is done exclusively by the underage characters. One of the Shepard boys spies on his older sister while she changes and then we are treated to a scene of him masturbating while thinking about it. In an attempt to show that Chiekoâ(TM)s issues with her father is hurting her we get disgusting and useless scenes of her flashing her bare crotch to older boys, forcing her dentist to grab her crotch during an exam, striping completely naked for a total stranger forcing him to touch her breasts. The portion with the Shepard boy is useless and adds nothing to the story, but if it did it could have been handled in a more mature way. As for Chieko, while her actions are born from her pain the director preferred to treat us like idiots and show us everything instead of being creative with how they revealed these problems. These scenes which exclusively featured children were disgusting and seemed to feed a fetish not a story. In all this film was not creative or insightful. In truth it is an exercise in cheap film making in an attempt to appear deep and forward thinking. There are better more intelligent ways to communicate everything this film desires to tell us but few in Hollywood are smart enough to do it. See more

George M Mar 13, 2019 Babel takes its theme as pride, arrogance, competition, selfishness, and the other side of humanity, subtle disposition of characters. The film was full of characters thanks to all actors and for non-English actors. If there is a film combines a variety of cultures and languages, I'll always try it at any time. It's not an English language that we need to understand, it's our feeling to understand what they want to convey. Into their own language, not only those who feel wrong or even the black sheep. Initially confusing but flattering each other into a truly intact movie. Far from other specials. See more

Mar 10, 2019 Watch this if you want to see how amazing the U.S. is and how bad the rest of the world is, give this a go.

Harry S Feb 25, 2019 This film brings to the table great acting , great directing but in its core there is a sadness to it that put me off. The different story archâ(TM)s fhay should Interconnect never really works for me because I canâ(TM)t seem to understand why if not for the sake of trying to be some artsy film . Good movie overall tho See more

Hermione R Feb 16, 2019 Babel is a movie for people who love movies. There are so many layers and the charecters are flawed. It sticks with you for days and is Inarritu's best film. See more

George S Jan 9, 2019 didn't care about this movie

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Babel

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