Babel

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

When an American couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) traveling in the Middle East fall victim to an unexpected tragedy, it sets off reverberations felt halfway around the world in this extraordinary, riveting and emotionally shattering film that will likely haunt you long after you see it. An unqualified triumph from director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel completes a trilogy that started with Amores Perros and 21 Grams and, like those films, presents an often compelling—if confusing— mosaic of human drama. Shot in a segmented style most recently used in Crash, the story, which was filmed on three continents in four different languages, doesn't really come together until the final act, forcing the viewer to piece parts of the puzzle together as it goes along. The key players, in addition to the married couple, are a young Moroccan boy, a deaf Japanese girl, her father, and a Mexican nanny. All these disparate people are brought together cinematically through a single, impulsive act with wide-ranging consequences. What the filmmakers clearly have in mind here is a moral tale focusing on the frustrating lack of communication permeating today's fractured world. Ultimately, however, it is the things that bring us together, not rip us apart, that clearly interest Iñárritu and his collaborators. This is the kind of demanding movie some will try to resist, but give it half a chance and you will be richly rewarded. Performances across the board are universally superb, and all deserve to be remembered come awards time. Babel, a title derived from the famous biblical story, is a towering achievement and world-class filmmaking of the highest order.

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