A tourist in Morocco. A wedding in Mexico. A deaf girl in Japan.
A world once divided, now all are connected. The world is diminishing whether we like it or not and our population is expanding. Yet so much is misunderstood. How hard is it to reach out to one another?
Alejandro González Iñárritu explores these issues of cross cultural understanding, or rather the lack of it, in his new disjointed form of storytelling in Babel, the third of his multi layered fractured, partial Mexican fables begun with Amores Perros (Love’s a bitch) and 21 Grams.
The most obvious, but not limited to only, thread that carries through this film is the notion that tragic consequences can arise from a simple, but ignorant decision.
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are the American tourists on holiday in Morocco when an unfortunate incident befalls them and sets a series of lethal events in motion.
Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) takes his Aunt from the U.S. to her sons wedding in Mexico, but rushed judgments will have a huge detrimental cost.
However it is Rinko Kikuchi who plays the deaf mute Chieko, who delivers the most surprising performance, deserving her Oscar nomination. Many have argued over the relevance of this most dubious piece of the three stories but they have missed the point. Reaching out for understanding is the underlying feeling to the entire film and nowhere is it more evident than in this section. It is all Chieko seeks.
Alejandro González Iñárritu isn’t interested in spelling it all out for the audience. He hopes they will argue it out afterwards while he gets on with the task of making films that are intelligent with substance and that
are relevant to the world we live in, especially at this juncture in time when we need to understand one another.
The title comes from Genesis. After The Great Flood, the people from the Ark attempted to build a city and a tower whose top might reach Heaven, the Tower of Babel. But God was angry with the idea and made each person speak a different language which halted the plan and scattered the disconnected people across the earth.
Alejandro is also a master of the edit. Not only does he love playing with structure, but his scenes have a superb rhythm and a certain style that can be hard hitting and yet introspective when he wants it to be. He is an artist, creating different moods within his tapestry while contemplating the overall work. The soothing music of Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain) goes a long way to help convey the atmosphere.
The two work together magnificently.
Like the aforementioned films, Babel has a hand held style of camerawork, with many close-ups of his wonderful cast whom he manages to draw exceptional performances from. Brad Pitt is not afraid to let the greys show and he hints at a varied range to come but it is his younger stars that draw the most emotion; the American children and their Moroccan counterparts.
Alejandro doesn’t pull any punches but no matter what your politic, this is one bout you will not want to miss.
One of the year’s best.
Reviewed by Anthony Langford
Subject: Babel 
8th February 2007, 12:34 am
