Babel

I just finished seeing Babel, and it's quite an extraordinary film. Certainly not a cuddly movie, or a movie to go to on your first date, but a great piece of cinema. The third film by Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, it is very similar in structure to his first two, Amores Perros and 21 Grams. A single incident (in the first two films it was a car accident, in this film it is a gunshot) effect a wide range of people. His films are also non-linear in nature, although Babel is much easier to follow that 21 Grams, which really jumbles the timeline.

The title comes from the biblical tale of man's attempt to build the Tower of Babel, in order to reach God. To punish man's hubris, God makes it so man has several languages instead of one, so they couldn't understand each other. Inability to communicate is at the core of this film.

To start, a pair of boys, goatherds in the mountains of Morocco, have a new rifle they have been given to keep jackals away from their herd. To show off, one of boys shoots at a bus, and hits an American tourist, Cate Blanchett. Her husband, Brad Pitt, is desperate to get her medical attention, but he is in the heart of the third world and amidst a pissing match between two governments. Meanwhile, his two children are cared for by a Mexican domestic. He phones her and tells her she must watch the children, as they can not leave Morocco while the wife is injured. The domestic, though, wants to go to her son's wedding in Mexico. She decides to take them with her, which in retrospect turns out to be a bad decision.

The third story concerns a young deaf Japanese girl. She is connected to the incident of Morocco only by the slenderest thread, but her lack of ability to communicate with the outside world makes her isolated and lonely, and given to impulsive acts of sexuality.

I particularly like the way this film was edited. Each story is grippingly suspenseful, and we are bounced from one to the other at just the right time, I think. The performances are all good--Pitt is sure to be a nominee for Supporting Actor, and Adriana Barazza, as the Mexican domestic, and Rinko Kikuchi, as the Japanese girl, are also possible nominees.

The film takes a few shots at U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the area of immigration, which I found perfectly acceptable, if not a little simplistic. Immigration is such a complicated issue in this country that could stand a whole film festival worth of films to sort out.