Babel

Babel is a very good film that barely has room for its leading actors: Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, who aside from their surprisingly small screen presence assure the film's commercial viability as many people will see the picture. Although they both performed brilliantly some unknown actors would have served just as well because the real star of the movie is Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. There is hardly a happy minute in the film but Iñárritu's deft vision keeps things interesting throughout. In spite of the unpleasant series of events the movie is visually rich and fastenating. The film is reminiscent of "Road To Guantanamo", a fake documentary, and a fantastic movie that was largely ignored by the public. It featured no movie 'stars' at all. The 2004 American academy award winning "Crash" and the 2000 film "Traffic", which was about drug trade, must have served as inspiration for "Babel" as all these films unfold as a complicated, interwoven series of events that ultimately connect. This one has three story lines taking place in three different, diverse locations on three continents.

In rural and dusty Morocco a peasant farmer negotiates the purchase of a high power hunting rifle. "Will you take a goat?", he asks the seller. Later, the man's young son takes the newly acquired rifle to the nearby hills for target practice. The kid decides to shoot at a passing bus full of tourists seriously wounding an American woman, played by Blanchett. It becomes a major international incident as the stricken woman's husband, played by Brad Pitt, desperately seeks medical attention in a nearby dirt poor town, right in the middle of nowhere.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, in a dramatic change of scene, we look in on the life of a young, well-to-do Japanese girl. Her existence is also full of hardship, in spite of her affluence. This is a window into the problems inherent in the well ordered Japanese culture. The fact that she is a deaf mute seemed to be the least of her problems. Her relationship with her father is complex and strained. She feels pressured by her peer group to take recreational drugs and indulge in awkward and foolhardy sexual relations. She even makes a clumsy advance on a police detective who visits her apartment to investigate her father, a wealthy businessman. There was a report that the rifle used in the Moroccan shooting was owned by the man. He had given the rifle as a gift to his guide when he was on a recent hunting trip in Morocco.

Then, in San Diego, the wounded American woman's two young children were being cared for by their Mexican housekeeper, an illegal immigrant, who decides that she must go to a family wedding back in Mexico, and had no choice but to take along the two kids. The wedding was okay in spite of being a culture shock for the two American children, but getting back across the US border turns out to be yet another nightmare.

Indeed, no-one escapes the hardship and tragedy in the rather long 142 minute production. And we are given nothing in the way of comic relief by the talented Mexican director. Sure, it's a difficult film full of gritty and disturbing reality, but it's well worth the time and agony. This is 'Oscar' territory.
USA - Alejandro González Iñárritu 2006 8/10