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
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