Babel
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal; Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Babel is a story surrounding four families, all connected by a single item - a rifle. When a Moroccan farmer buys the gun from a neighbor to keep jackals at bay from their goats, the farmer’s two young sons decide the next day to test how far the bullets will travel. Picking distant rocks to serve as targets at first, they eventually set their sights on a tour bus coming towards them on the desert road. At first the youngest boy believes his shot has missed, and they begin to turn away in disappointment. But then the bus slows, and a horrible clamor of screaming and yelling arises from inside. American tourist Susan Jones has been shot in the neck. The tragedy snowballs from there. Susan’s husband Richard is now in a desperate race against time to find medical help for his wife in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, the nanny of the Jones’s children is crushed to learn that she will not be able to attend her son’s wedding, as she is needed to remain with the children. Her decision to take them along to the wedding across the Mexican border will lead to a terrifying and life-altering incident. Finally, there is the disturbing story of a deaf-mute teenager, desperately seeking a male presence in her life, a spot left void by her distant and hurting father - a Japanese businessman who had recently given a friendly Moroccan hunting guide a rifle as a gift...
Displaying gray hair in all its glory, Brad Pitt as Richard Jones gave one of the better performances of the film, an emotionally raw portrayal of a man mourning the recent loss of his child and soon finding himself faced with the possibility of losing his beloved wife. Cate Blanchett, who played Susan Jones, was perfect once again. Thrust into truly humiliating, horrifying, and painful situations, she carried them all with utter grace and heart-wrenching humanness. She even achieved this while screaming at the top of her lungs as a local Moroccan veterinarian sanitized a needle with a cigarette lighter in order to sew up her wound. The times we spent with them during the course of the film were the most affecting and oftentimes the most poignant.
The other story threads were not half as interesting or engaging. The nanny was a good-hearted and caring woman, and her trip with the kids into Mexico presented a stark contrast to the white-picket-fence-swimming-pools way of life they lived in San Diego. But there were also boring and unnecessary side stories, including a sudden reunion between the nanny and an old flame. It also became quickly clear that the director might be harboring issues with Border Patrol. All of the officers were portrayed as insensitive and prejudiced bullies, out to cause trouble and make things as difficult as possible for the people crossing the border. While it certainly holds true that some of those qualities can indeed be seen in some American police officers, Border patrol itself is by no means a bad or evil thing. Early on, the young Jones’ daughter quips, “Mom said that Mexico was a dangerous place”, the nanny’s nephew laughs and retorts, “Yeah, it’s full of Mexicans!”.
There was a clear message about bigotry in this film, and we got it. But for me, the director shot himself in the foot with that interchange, as Mexico can in fact be a very dangerous place. It seemed that the storyline with the most screen time was the young Japanese teen’s attempts to get men - any man, dentists included - to notice her. Time after time after time, we saw her reach out, be rejected, then grow more bitter and spiteful. Even though reconciliation with her father is hinted at by the end, she never gets much sympathy from the audience, even when the reasons for her actions have become clear. The Moroccan family in the desert held the least screen time, but the most tragic end, and it is harrowing to see what kind of transgressions can reach out into even the most desolate of places.
This film exhibits a whole span of human faults, and multiple messages in regard to them along the way. It encourages parents to connect with their children. It condemns racism, prejudice against those with disabilities, and carries a huge warning about the danger of guns. It shows that love can still be found in pain, but also that selfishness can cause profound hurt. Babel is a reference to the biblical story about a group of people who decide to build a tower to heaven, believing that their own strength and intelligence will bring them success. When God sees this arrogance, he throws confusion down among the people and they begin to speak in different languages. Thus, the Tower of Babel must be abandoned, as it is now impossible to communicate because of the language barriers. Barriers of more than one kind plague the characters of this film - emotional, political, and physical - miscommunication is the biggest enemy here. But there is so much to absorb, so much that is trying to be said, and it is almost too much. In this way, the film reminded me a lot of Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana. Brutal scenes and nauseating handheld camera work is fast becoming the style of today’s politically colored human dramas (think 2005’s The Constant Gardener and Paul Haggis’s Crash). It was an interesting film with good performances across the board, but by the end, it became bogged down in frustratingly continuous misery, and ultimately overwhelmed by its own thematic aspirations.
Story = B
Acting = A-
Enjoyability = C
Visuals = B+
Overall = B-
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