There is nothing here to hold on to, nothing to take away. All the performances are incredible, and very touching. Choices made in extreme situations and how their repercussions are interpreted and dealt with around the globe. It also tries to leave a message of how a 'shooting' from a simple 'gift' can set off a chain reaction of tragic events in three continents and four countries over which the different characters have exceedingly uncomfortable human emotion? Unfortunately this viewer was bored silly by it. A good cast, great acting, fine cinematography, and expert direction make this film well worth watching. But the worst thing is, Babel thinks it is saying something.
The movie is oftentimes difficult to watch, with ultrarealistic cinematography and gutsy, honest performances from its entire cast, particularly Oscar-nominated actresses Adriana Barraza Amelia and Rinko Kikuchi Chieko. Yes, we can't communicate and if it isn't clear one of the characters is deaf , yes we are all connected, yes this will lead to tragedy. He hands the rifle to his two young sons and tells them to kill jackals with it, to protect the herd. That's the setup of this complex, challenging film. Hers is arguably the most compelling story especially in terms of sheer fun to be had. Great movie, especially if you're a parent as your protective instincts will kick in at least once during this movie! Brad Pitt did an excellent job, and the always outstanding Cate Blanchett, a powerhouse actor if there ever was one, has the least screen time of any of the leads. The characters are all interlinked in a very random way, it's a little like 10 degrees of separation.
It was meant to be and it was meant to be in the way that it unfolds, no matter how absurd, how contradictory, how seemingly coincidental. It is trying to con us into believing that something profound is being said: something about our inability to communicate, something about cultures, something about families. Although I cannot help but remark, I? I'm sure many will be able to identify with the sprawling surge of Mexican culture at the wedding and indeed the music and pace made this storyline both beautiful and site enjoyable to follow. Its an attempt to add some emotional and intellectual weight to a story that doesn't need it. You can readily imagine how it'd be if you, an unworldly American, were suddenly in dire need of expert medical attention in a part of the world that wasn't really famed for it. What should be considered is the story being told by the very competent director, Alejandro González I? I can't believe I'm saying that but I am and I'm meaning every word.
One of these is the story of the married couple Richard and Susan Jones, played by Pitt and Blanchett, who travel to Morocco 'to get away'. It is evident that director Alejandro González I? Here I found the single most vivid disco sequence completely sucking me in and not letting go until the fast-paced euphoria of Chieko finally subsided. I walked out of the the film admiring it and what it was trying to do, but not liking it much at all. She's alternately serene and violent, in charge of and captured by her impediment. Combined, it provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of seemingly random people around the world and it shows just how connected we really.
Its a beautiful movie to look at and is magnificently acted. The characters are deep and insightful, each has a problem to face up to and the subtle, naturalistic way their issues play out make for truly emotional cinema. I don't know anything about Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, other than he is one of the most extraordinary filmmakers to emerge in the 00's, but I suspect he has the soul of a Christian prophet, the mysticism behind the realism of his stories reek of God and of New Testament. Discussions about screenplay similarity are irrelevant. Something in their past has driven them apart, and to help deal with the problem they have taken a trip together.
His film exposes four unconnected story lines that are eventually divulged to be inextricably linked to one another? Wait for briannekershner46.madpath.com video or cable If you? Each story is complete, but a series of snapshots that leave as many questions as answers. Few can do so much with so little. What is most remarkable about their storyline is that Brad Pitt actually emotes as an actor although is he is grossly facilitated by heartfelt circumstances and that Cate Blanchett regrettably never gets the chance to shine in her performance. The second concerns a Middle-class American couple on a bus tour of Morocco trying to save together their damaged marriage? Each storyline deals with family and conflict from the inability to communicate or to understand. Finally, it offers a satisfying and humble conclusion to an otherwise epic film.
Chieko resents her father, her volleyball teammates, and most of all every so-called normal person who looks at deaf-mutes as monsters, creatures to be scorned and taken advantage of. It's not for everyone, but for people who are ready to see deliberately paced low-key thriller, this is one good film. Like Barraza, Kikuchi's role called for a difficult sacrifice: plenty of nudity. She flirts with sexual exhibitionism to attract the attention of her distant and uncommunicative father? Meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd. In the middle of nowhere, there's no medical help, and no one wants to wait with the injured person except her husband.
Chieko craves human contact but feels that the world's even more shut off to her now than ever before, and she sullenly shuns even her father's attentions. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel weaves four disparate and seemingly unrelated tales into a distinct, gritty narrative about the importance of communication - and what can happen when it goes awry. Being a teenage girl is hard enough and Chieko finds that her disability distances her from other people? To say any more would possibly lesson the experience, so let me just say this: it may seem confusing at times, but by the end, it will seem like poetry. From the dramatic barren landscapes of Morocco to the fast-paced teen world of Tokyo, Babel treats contrast with remarkable sensitivity and skill of the subject matter. His images will remain with me forever in particular Adriana Barraza's moment with the American kids in the desert. He opens himself up for a barrage of criticism and ridicule but at the end his genius wins. Then, on the opposite side of the world the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's 2 children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico, only to come into trouble on the return trip.
Some works of art illustrate the futility of life, man's inhumanity to man, and offer insight into our own struggles --but unfortunately not Babel. Gonzalesz Inarritu has put together an immediate universe populated by incomprehension and humanity shaken and wrapped in a bloody cloth of the purest linen. The first involves an isolated family of goat herders who live in the High Plateaus of the Moroccan desert where two young boys are testing a rifle's range handed by their father to protect their goats from jackals. It is a tale of different lives and the choices people make. It should go without saying that this film really isn't for everyone.
That's a tribute to the wonderful camera-work and editing by, respectively, Rodrigo Prieto and the team of Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrone. Better yet, you get so caught up in each story that when it cuts to make room for the next you feel almost a little offended? Told nonlinearly, the movie describes the travails of a troubled married couple with a tour group in Morocco, played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. This is not a film about heroes, it's a film about trying to make the right choices when your back is to the wall, and the doubts that go with this. There is a wealth of juxtapositions of culture to be found and much fun and visual stimulation to be had because of it. Richard Pitt calls home in San Diego to notify the nanny of their children, Amelia; Amelia is in a bit of a bind, because she expected the parents home so she could attend the wedding of her son in Mexico. In other words, it gives a nonsentimental yet compassionate insight into the lives of different people whose stories orbit around the kaleidoscope that is 'Babel', sewn together by unsparing and uninhibited performances. No revelations to be found.