Babel DVD > Reviews > A Towering Film

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Excellent cast and performances
Disadvantages:	Nothing major

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Babel is multi-award nominated film starring Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt but they are far from the stars in this ensemble piece. The film is in four parts, with each story interlinked. For the most part the connections are obvious but one of the connections is more subtle than the others. Also the stories are told out of sequence with each other. Whilst each story takes roughly the same amount of screen time, not all of them run concurrently, which is initially confusing. However, like similar films, having only four threads to follow makes it easier and allows greater depth to the stories and the characters

First we see Amelia (Adrianna Barazza, who received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her performance), a Mexican lady caring for two American kids in (what I assume is) California. The kids' parents have been held up on holiday and Amelia is unable to get anyone to care for them when she returns to Mexico for her son's wedding so is forced to take them with her and nephew Santiago (Gael Garcia Bernal) when they travel back to her home town.

We also meet Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) who are struggling in their relationship and trying to rebuild it whilst travelling in Morocco. Unfortunately the neurotic Susan is shot, in what soon becomes an international incident involving suspected terrorists, and Richard must try and get help for her in the Moroccan mountains.

Meanwhile Moroccan goat herder Abdullah is trying to keep his young sons, Yussef and Ahmed out of trouble. The youngest, Yussef, is always looking for mischief and is especially keen to try out the new rifle that their father recently bought.

Also, in Japan we see a young deaf-mute teenager, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi, who also received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations) struggling in her relationship with her father and with boys in general whilst trying to come to terms with the tragic circumstances of her mother's death.

Story wise each thread is easy to follow, although I found the Japanese segment slightly confusing as initially it didn't fit in with the other stories. Probably the thread dealing with the Americans in Morocco was the weakest, although you do feel for Richard's frustration that he is unable to get anything done to help his wife. Direction by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and script by Guillermo Arriaga is tight and to the point. There is no padding or unnecessary dialogue on this film, and I really like that. Saying that, it did seem a bit slow in the beginning but I think that is because you are actually watching the start of four smaller films, and it seems to take longer to work out who is who and what is happening than it would if the film only had the one story.

The vast majority of the film is subtitled, with the non-English characters played by actors (who are native to the respective countries) speaking their own languages (Arabic, Spanish, Japanese) as they would normally, rather than have American actors, or getting them to speak English when they wouldn't in a real life situation. I don't find this a problem and it would be a shame to pass up this film because of the subtitles. The language differences are an integral part of the story be it Americans in Morocco, Mexicans in the US or a deaf mute girl struggling to be understood in Japan. After all, the title comes from the biblical story of the same name, where God apparently gave people different languages, so that they could not continue to build the tower of Babel up to heaven.

Performance wise I just cannot fault this film. You would obviously expect an actor of the calibre of Cate Blanchett to do well, and she was excellent, even though it was such a relatively small role for her. Brad Pitt also impressed me, getting his teeth into the part and making Richard a deeper and more interesting character than he may otherwise have been. Adrianna Barazza and Rinko Kikuchi both deserved the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations they received for their parts as the distraught maid/nanny and kooky, disturbed teenager respectively. I also think an honourable mention should go to Boubker Ait El Caid who played young Moroccan goat herder Yussef so convincingly.

As regards the music, I have marked it as 'Average', I have to say I was so engrossed in the story as to not notice it, but is that not the point?

The film has a 15 certificate for violence, nudity, sexual and drug references.