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Film: Babel
Release date: 21st May 2007
Certificate: 15
Running time: 138 mins
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
Genre: Drama
Studio: Paramount
Format: DVD
Country: France/USA/Mexico
Multiple-language release, including English.
Talented director Alejandro González Iñarritú and writer Guillermo Arriaga score a hat trick with Babel, the much anticipated follow-up to their blockbusters Amores Perros and 21 Grams. The Mexican duo continue with their now defining approach of using multiple characters, storylines and now multiple timeframes to make a point about humanity on a grand scale, partly reminiscent of 2005’s Oscar-winning, love-it-or-hate-it, Crash.
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are on form, playing a distant couple who have come to Morocco for a make-or-break holiday when Blanchett’s character Susan, ironically oozing mistrust and contempt for the Moroccan people, ends up the casualty of the rifle shot fired by two young brothers (expertly played by Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchini) leaving her little else to do but lie there, bleeding and crying.
The plot then deals with the rippling effects of that single rifle-shot across four countries (USA, Mexico, Japan and Morocco), linking all the characters...
The title - Babel - alludes to the story of the Tower of Babel in the Biblical book of Genesis, which was created by humankind so that they could reach the heavens. Angered at His creations’ pride and arrogance, God confused their languages so that they were no longer able to communicate, and scattered them across the face of the earth, grouped together according to their new mother tongues. This is how the world’s various races, cultures and languages were created.
Babel illustrates the supposed consequences of this event, which certainly aren’t sugar-coated. But, lo-and-behold, at a few select moments interspersed throughout, it also shows the hope and warmth that humankind can offer to others who are different to them. According to the film in general, however, language and culture seem to act as a barrier that serves to divide us rather than aid our understanding of one another. The despair created by these differences is cleverly depicted by Iñarritú.
Babel not only serves great testament to fantastic directing, but to superb, very touching acting. Pitt delivers a good performance as the grief-stricken, caring husband, who tends to his wife’s every need. Look out for a heart-warming moment, reminiscent of the calm after the storm, between Pitt and the Moroccan Tour Guide who helps him.
Iñarritú favourite Adriana Barraza delivers a fine performance as the warm, loving nanny of Pitt and Blanchett’s children back in the US, who, caught between her obligations to the children and those to her son on his wedding day, illegally takes the kids across the border to Mexico in a moment of madness. A smokin’ hot, bad-ass Gael García Bernal plays her crazy nephew, Santiago, who causes havoc on the journey back from Mexico and, perhaps most memorably, teaches the children how to best kill a chicken!
Elsewhere, Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi gives a stunning, emotionally intense performance as Chieko, a stroppy, deaf-mute Japanese teenager, struggling to come to terms with her mother’s death, not to mention her uncontrollable hormones. At one point, straight out of the blue, the affection-starved schoolgirl seductively licks her dentist’s face.
Chieko doesn’t hide her strained relationship with her constantly worried business-man father, who provides the link between this narrative and the others. An old hunting aficionado, he gave his now-infamous hunting rifle to his Moroccan tour guide as a present when he was leaving the country, and ends up being implicated in the shooting incident.
One scene that particularly stands out is when Chieko and her friends are in a nightclub after an alcohol and drug-fuelled day. The pounding beats of Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough suddenly come to a halt, allowing us to see and hear the world through her eyes – a very emotive scene, perfectly conveying Chieko’s sense of dislocation and loneliness in the big bad world.
The cinematography is breathtaking, mesmerising at times. The contrast of sweeping shots of the barren Moroccan desert with jolly Mariachis at a typically vivacious Mexican wedding and long shots of a bustling Tokyo by day is tremendous. BAFTA winner Gustavo Santaolalla also hits the nail on the head with the superb soundtrack, which perfectly reflects and makes you feel as if you are really part of each scene.
However, the interlocking narratives and time shifts between scenes may prove too much for some. Also, it does feel frustrating that there is no real conclusion to any of the narratives, but it seems that is as the director intended. It is an open-ended story that wants you to ponder life’s injustices.
Babel deals with so many different themes; some action-packed, some smile-worthy and some that can’t help but tug on your heart strings. The director deserves credit for the way he portrays the contrasting emotions and constantly keeps the viewer on their toes as to how the stories will develop. It is compulsive viewing, and is sure not to disappoint the procrastinators among us. JMN
Film: Dinner For Schmucks
Release date: 3rd September 2010
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 114 mins
Director: Jay Roach
Starring: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Jemaine Clement, Stephanie Szostak
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Paramount
Format: Cinema
Country: USA
This is an English-language release.
Le Dîner De Cons: intelligent, raucous and thought provoking - words you don’t tend to associate with the majority of Hollywood’s output. But they do insist on highlighting their failings.
Everything is going well for Tim. He has an easy, well paid job, a stunning girlfriend, and a flash apartment - but he wants more. He desires promotion to the next level of the firm he works for, a chance to gain more income, and impress his girlfriend who has thus far refused to bow to his relentless marriage proposals – he also becomes increasingly insecure she will find herself in the bed of the charismatic artist she’s working with.
Despite impressing at a board meeting, Tim must attend his boss’ annual dinner to ensure his promotion goes through – the catch: each attendee must bring a fool, who will provide the boss and his guests (including an orange David Walliams as Swiss royalty set to invest millions into their company) with entertainment.
Despite the protests of his girlfriend, Tim sees an opportunity too good to pass up when he mows down the slow minded Barry whilst distracted on his cell phone. Barry shows excitement that he’s been hit by a Porsche, and even offers to payoff Tim, despite being the victim – he’s the perfect candidate.
However, Tim will soon regret extending his dinner invite to Barry, as his presence soon sends his life into chaos…
It’s hardly going to be a surprise to read a website purveying in foreign-language filmmaking slate an American remake of one of France’s golden comedic achievements, Le Dîner De Cons. But we never wanted much. We always knew this was going to be a dumbed down version, but with the likes of Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and director Jay Roach at the helm, who have been involved in many of America’s more palatable releases in recent years, we would have forgiven the sledgehammer approach for ninety minutes of mindless, throwaway entertainment. It never comes close to such modest expectations.
Steve Carell has always struggled when moving into Jim Carrey territory – most obviously in his follow-up to Bruce Almighty – and whilst his ‘fool act’ was tolerable in the likes of Anchorman, where he had a much smaller role within an ensemble, here he comes painfully unstuck. Unlike Carrey who had such success playing dim-wits in the likes of Dumb & Dumber, Carell doesn’t have the physique, the facial elasticity or persona to carry off goofy behaviour whilst retaining the audience’s empathy (even if he sports the same haircut as Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas character in Peter Farrelly laugh-out-loud original). He simply becomes infuriating. More so, when he’s given such inconsistent and barrel scraping material to work with.
The early premise made by Rudd’s over reactive partner is that laughing at people who are odd is wrong, yet all attempts at humour stem from mocking Carell’s Barry character, whose OTT appearance and behaviour is an attempt at milking as many laughs as possible from somebody who surely has a mental disability. Yet despite these tasteless sets up, where, for example, Barry is given a telephone number containing a series of 1’s and doesn’t understand the strange noise from the handset informing him he’s misdialled, he’s managed to retain a long-term job working for the IRS (perhaps a dig from clearly overpaid scriptwriters bemoaning their tax bill); has previously been married (although he had to look under the sofa and still couldn’t find the cliterous); and can create intricate and detailed dioramas, populated by dead mice he preserves, makes up and dresses in custom made costumes – yet you are supposed to believe he would find it impossible to get himself dressed in the morning.
Carrel has proven when he plays it straight – Dan In Real Life, Little Miss Sunshine – he’s a competent actor, but he comes unstuck when asked to absurdly destroy a stranger’s flat play fighting with a leather clad stalker. Although, in fairness, he never comes to Rudd’s do-gooder love interest for exasperating viewers.
As with Carrel, Rudd is another actor whose limitations were easily overlooked within Farrell’s star-vehicle Anchorman, and whilst he’s become the unfunny ‘go to’ comedy actor for Hollywood within recent years, he serves no purpose when the lead fails so miserably. He’s clearly type-cast as the ‘well off’, career type with a beautiful partner, who jeopardises it all once he makes acquaintance with a dysfunctional male. He’s diminutive and plain in a stereotypically good looking way, so he’ll never distract from the star turn of a Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) or Jason Segel (I Love You, Man), and, with no obvious failings, he’s perfectly credible when it comes to the requisite Hollywood schmaltzy ending, but the more Carrel floundered, the more dislikeable he became. His vacant expression throughout the film’s running time was the only appropriate inclusion, as we were asked to root for a selfish character who displayed only monetary greed and dishonesty throughout. No story or character arc prepared us for the clichéd ending, which is swiftly tagged on despite ample time to build up to such predictability.
That brings us to the film’s running time. Two hours is too long for most films, particularly comedies, and when you are throwing out so many misses, it’s arduous to say the least. Roach has form with the Meet The Parents and Austin Powers franchises, but there were enough original set pieces – and two confirmed comedy actors in Ben Stiller and Mike Myers respectably – to maintain interest in those earlier hits.
Producer Sacha Baron Cohen has proven with characters Ali G, Borat and Bruno that he has little shame, but hopefully he’ll show some red-faced humility in apologising to the likes of David Walliams, Zach Galifianakis and Kristen Schaal who provide the only guilty chuckles, although Lucy Punch (recently enjoying success in BBC 2’s Vexed) is made to look ridiculous as the crazed stalker that wants Carell to spank her like a school girl (“You’re a little old to be a school girl, aren’t you?”). Let’s also hope this isn’t a sign of things to come for Jermaine Clement, whose cult television hit Flight Of The Conchords is in a completely different league to this offering.
Dinner For Schmucks has somehow managed to be worse than any fan of the original could possibly have feared when the remake was announced. ‘Nuff said. DH
