Babel

[Monotreme]

Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, 2006

Out of the three masterful Mexican directors – Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Innaritu is that whose body of work is, as of now, the most impressive. Cuaron’s other films are good and Children of Men blew me away, and I’m not the biggest fan of del Toro’s English-language work although his Spanish stuff is great; but Innaritu’s three films are masterpieces, each one on its own and as a body of work. And with Babel, Innaritu truly reaches a creative peak totally unlike his previous two films – they just get better and better, and Babel is the magnum opus, a total masterpiece.

There are so many points to address in this film; I really don’t know where to begin. I’ll start with the first and foremost element: its lasting impression. The film is more emotional than anything I’ve seen all year. It’s truly gut wrenching and extremely depressing. At many times the film is hard to watch not because of shocking imagery, but simply because the emotions portrayed on the screen are so incredibly powerful and bleak, one’s stomach just can’t take them. At the end of it all, the film is not a depressing one; while the stories contain deep and terrible tragedies, each one ends in what can be interpreted as somewhat of a redeeming note, although everything leading up to the very end is so incredibly bleak and hopeless, it’s hard to accept the film as an uplifting one. But the incredibly raw, vicious and pure emotions the film portrays wouldn’t be half as worth it if Innaritu hadn’t known just how to portray them.

Innaritu spends a lot of time with his characters. For such a broad, sprawling, worldwide film, it spends a lot of time in intimate moments with its characters in which their emotions at their most extreme are portrayed in full glory. At each of the characters’ breaking points, Innaritu lingers with his camera for a long while, so that we can stomach the full caliber of their feelings. In all, the film is absolutely a directorial wonder – it’s difficult enough when you have a film in no less than five languages, one of them being sign language; but all of the stories in the film feature child actors who do an absolutely stunning job, and I can’t imagine how difficult it must be directing children in a foreign language.

All the acting is absolutely stunning, throughout the entire film. After its emotional punch and the amazing directorial work, I’d rate the acting as the third most amazing asset of the film. And amazing it is. The known stars of the film; Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal do absolutely amazing jobs, although Gael’s part is a little more limited than that of the other two. Cate Blanchett, one of my personal favourite actresses, is one you can always count on to deliver a solid, interesting performance, and she does an amazing job in this film, particularly in this one amazing scene between her and Pitt involving a pan. The real shocker is Pitt, who is really quite a hit-and-miss actor: On the one hand he has rich, juicy performances like in Twelve Monkeys and Fight Club; on the other hand he has dry, boring performances such as in The Mexican or Troy. But in this film he delivers what is easily one of the finest performances of his career: the raw emotions, the anger, the despair, the ferocity; Pitt does an incredible job at portraying these. His finest moment in the film: The phone conversation with home. But the real stunners are two of the co-stars; Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi, who deliver absolutely amazing performances; especially Kikuchi, whom I would rate as the breakthrough actress of the year along with Shareeka Epps of Half Nelson.

The film of course displays much technical prowess, although in a very minimal way. This isn’t exactly the visual masterwork that is Children of Men or Pan’s Labyrinth, but the film does carry a unique cinematic style Innaritu utilized in his previous two films as well: Gritty, handheld filmmaking that is never showy and never comes before the story and the acting, but that adds to the mood incredibly. The real stunning technical aspect of the film, though, is its editing. In what may be my favourite scene in the film – the nightclub scene in the Tokyo story – the editing is the best I’ve seen in any film this year.

Thematically, the film is just as amazing as its amazing emotional scale and its acting and directing. I admit I was kind of worried this film would try to force a moral message; look at the poor people subject to prejudice who are really nice people that just want to help. But I never once got messages like this from the film, which was extremely impressive, in my opinion – that the director avoided treading such simple ground. The film’s real message lies in its title. We are all familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel, where God created the different languages so that the people would fail to construct their tower up to the heavens. So first and foremost, the film portrays human beings’ lack of communication, both obviously and not so obviously. Obviously, the different languages of the film are the first barrier between the characters’ communications – specifically in the American couple story, we have a full-fledged language barrier in which the characters simply don’t understand one another. But there is another form of miscommunication in this segment, and that is the emotional language barrier between the Pitt and Blanchett characters. In the Mexico story we have a form of racial prejudice as another example of lack of communication, as well as a language barrier – although it is interesting to note that the children seem to understand Barraza’s character when she speaks to them in Spanish, which makes sense as it is mentioned that she raised them since they were born. In the Morrocan locals’ story we have the childrens’ lying as the more obvious form of miscommunication; but more discreetly, we have a father who trusts his children with a big responsibility without properly explaining the weight and importance of the burden. In the Tokyo story we have a deaf and mute girl. But her disconnection from her surroundings isn’t only physical; she is also emotionally disconnected, which drives her to desperate acts of anguish and frustration. The “butterfly effect” aspect of the film, that is that all four stories are connected, is far from being the center of the film, but it plays an important part. Ultimately, when you connect the two elements together – the connection of all the stories from the other side of the World on the one hand and the failure of communication on the other hand, we reach the following bottom line: While we are all one world – all connected, all the same – we still haven’t learned to communicate with one another, and that leads to tragedies. There are two things in common with all the characters, though, that is the center of the film’s statement on the human soul. The first is emotions; all of the characters feel strong, sharp emotions, and through these emotions alone can the characters transcend the language barrier; see for example the old woman in the Morrocan village that tends to Cate Blanchett’s character. Or how Brad Pitt’s character picks up on his guide’s intentional mistranslation of the doctor’s assessment. The other thing in common with all the characters is applying bad judgment. The statement “we’re only human” is relevant in full force in the decisions the various characters in the film make.

It is interesting to note that Innaritu insists that his film is mainly about children, and not necessarily about the human psyche and about communication. It is definitely no coincidence that the first credit to appear is a dedication to his three children, or that each of the stories involve children in one way or another. Indeed, in this sense the film can be seen as the second in a trilogy of films from our three Mexican filmmakers this year – Pan’s Labyrinth about children in the past; Babel about children in the present; and Children of Men about children in the future. Loose, but the connection is there.

Ultimately, Babel is an unbelievable experience. Emotionally gut wrenching, I actually found it slightly more accessible than Innaritu’s previous three films, although it is much longer. This film is seriously engaging. It is also a directorial achievement of epic proportions: aside from the epic scale of a global film, the language barrier is also an extremely difficult obstacle to overcome. The acting is nothing short of spectacular from everyone involved: the stars, the unknowns, and the children together. The story is real, honest and engaging, although the film’s real core is its characters, its emotions and its ultimate thematic relevance. And all of this is accompanied by a haunting but absolutely beautiful score by Gustavo Santaolalla. It is Innaritu’s best work, and one of the best films of the year, right behind Children of Men. A masterpiece if I’ve ever seen one.

RATING: 10/10.

[Gordon]

Great review for a great film. I definatly agree with everything you said.

I noticed at the end of the movie all of the women in the audience were crying, and a few guys.

[Monotreme]

In terms of my audience, I was actually surprised at the huge split. On the one end of the spectrum there were those that were absolutely mesmerized, and remained along with me and my friend over the end credits just staring, trying to digest what we just saw. And then there were the walk-outs. Then again, the film was playing in the "arthouse"-type theatre that always gets the indie types - last year I saw four movies there and not one of them didn't have at least one walk-out. I think the most walk-outs in one movie I've ever seen was Brokeback Mountain - and yes, it was also playing in this theatre. I really feel sorry for the people who couldn't connect to it so much they just had to leave. Perhaps they just found it too difficult to face the depressing truth that life does indeed suck.

[ilovemovies]

An often gripping and powerfully movie and it's definitely one of the best films of 2006.

The story involving the kids who accidentally shoot at an American tourist is so sad and gurwrenching. Adriana Barraza gives what is probably the movies best performance as the nanny of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett's children and whose only really guilty of trusting the wrong person (though she does make the mistake of leaving the kids behind in the middle of the desert). Brad Pitt gives one of his best ever performances as a man on vacation with his wife to try and connect with eachother again and desperately trying to get medical attention for his wife who was the American accidentally shot by the two kids. Finally, the story everyone seems to love the most is actually the one I liked least probably because it's only barely connected with the other three storylines. Still, the story involving a teenage girl whose mother died and doesn't seem to communicate well with her father, is nonetheless compelling and strongly acted. And the scene where she takes some kind of drug and goes into a rave is brilliantly staged.

8/10

[bigred760]

Definitely a thought provoking flick that doesn't lose your attention thanks to its premise, its storylines, and definitely the performances brought by the actors. Having visited several countries in my lifetime, I connected with the story and its message. I can't say that I've ever experienced any of the difficulties that went on in the movie, but nevertheless I understood them. I wouldn't call this a movie for everyone, but it's a very good thought-provoking movie that drives its point home very well.

8/10

[paraue]

Yes, I agree with everything you have said. It was a truely great movie. Not perfect, but very, very well acted and directed. 9/10 from me.

[jin4154]

The movie was pretty good.

It tends to have less orientalism in the movie, I guess. Sometimes you

feel strange when you watch a moive made by hollywood filmakers

and other foreign filmakers but this movie I was inspired by the scenes

in Tokyo, Japan, and also in Moroco. The directors tried to tell about

the disconnection within communication and I think he did pretty good job

on showing that.

[Cronos]

very good film, the acting was excellent all round, well written characters and script with a very engaging plot, at times it was hard to look away from the screen

8/10

[LedZeppelin1114]

I was quite frankly shocked that Babel had defeated The Departed at the Golden Globes and in the process won Best Drama Picture, and that curiousity compelled me to immediately run out and view the film. After watching the film, I was glad to see that The Departed ultimately defeated it at the Oscars, because it was by far a better picture. In fact, I believe all of the Best Picture nominees were better pictures than Inarritu's follow-up to a film I absolutely loved, 21 Grams.

That is not to say that Babel is a bad film; far from it actually. Brad Pitt gives one of the best performances of his career, and though Cate Blanchett has done better, that is not to downplay her great performance in this film, but to merely elevate her performance in countless others, namely Elizabeth, Notes on a Scandal, and The Aviator. And Rinko Kikuchi is truly amazing as a sexually confused young girl in the film. The film also brilliantly weaves four distinct stories together in a logical manner.

And though I enjoyed the movie, it did not dazzle me. I liked the film very much, but I did not go out of my way to recommend it in the way I did with The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, or The Departed. All in all, I didn't think it was an excellent film, but merely a very good one.

7/10