Babel Reviews

Timix1's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Good Points: Gripping international drama boasting stunning performances from marquee names and unknown actors alike, gorgeous cinematography and thoughtful scoring.

General comments: Juggling four interconnected subplots with slightly staggered timelines in one movie is no small accomplishment, so director Alejandro Gonz lez I rritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga deserves credit just for giving it a shot even if the finished product had proven to be a complete mess. Mind you, the twosome workshopped these same elements with great success on their previous collaborations, AMORES PERROS and 21 GRAMS. The intense, stunningly ambitious BABEL, however, belongs in a league all its own. Of the 100+ films that I watched last year, no other movie dared to aim as high, and the end result is a bold, mesmerizing ensemble piece that stands out as my favourite film of 2006.

Thankfully for I rritu, his task is made far easier by a carefully chosen cast that combines famous faces with unknown actors. The marquee names - Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, a never-better Brad Pitt - all deliver solid performances yet find themselves largely upstaged by both Adriana Barraza as a dutiful nanny returning to her native Mexico for her son's wedding, and especially young Rinko Kikuchi as a lonely Japanese deaf-mute exploring her burgeoning sexuality (both ladies earned richly-deserved Oscar nominations for their work here).

Though separated by three continents and four languages, the multitude of characters are connected not only by circumstance but also misunderstandings that highlight just how important the simple act of listening can be. At a time in our history when common ground between (and tolerance for) differing religious and political viewpoints are in critically short supply, BABEL's underlying message is one of empathy for others; within its personalized tales of loss, tragedy and miscommunication, the film warns us - without the overwrought preachiness of 2005's CRASH, mind you - of the dangers inherent with turning a blind eye to the people around us. Despite the script's intrinsic globetrotting, the individual tales all squarely focus their attention on their respective characters, making their plights eminently relatable in a way that transcends language or geography. In lesser hands, a movie like this could easily come off as pretentious and convoluted. In my book, BABEL is an absorbing, often moving drama that proves to be far greater than the sum of its considerable parts.

Amanda Speedie's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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This is a highly intelligent, deeply affecting film. Shot in documentary style, it offers the realism of unforced observation, yet it is brilliantly arranged and choreographed. Innaritu has achieved actors' performances which appear absolutely natural, and understated, and which give their characters enormous dignity. The result is so accomplished that the unfolding story audience is totally absorbing.

A sequence of events is set off by an accident when two brothers are arguing over the dist ...

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It left me wondering what the point of it all was. I can't understand why anyone would have this idea and then actually write a whole screenplay for it. Like I said, each story was fair enough but none of them really combined at any point, so it was like...why? What was the reason for making this film? I'm afraid it just came across as being an excuse for some nice direction and use of different cultures and places without any real substance behind it.
I'm amazed that it has received any Oscar ...

Although at times hard to follow, this film provides a harsh look at simple and realistic situations of real people and shows how four stories from across the world are interwoven.