In the Biblical story, the people of Babel decides to challenge God by building a tower that reaches all the way to heaven. The God that was not pleased, decides to punish the people by scattering the people across the globe and brings about the confusion of various languages. So here we have the modern world, with scattered people, still coping the barriers of culture, communication, language but eventually how emotions of love and loss remains the same.
So then, it comes as no surprise when you are caught up with the characters and when your heart goes out to their worries and their troubles.
And so we have director Alejandor Inarritu’s BABEL. Four stories, over three continents, director Innaritu has brought in enough intensity and drama into the proceedings to make the various plots actually gripping enough for you to overlook the rather slow artsy pacing of the flick.
The story starts off with a Moroccan goat herder buying a rifle from a local guide so that he can keep the jackals away from their goats. His two sons who are given the rifle, decides to fool around and decides to practise their shooting skills.
It so happens that their stray bullet strikes a tourist bus, and the victim of the bullet is an American tourist (Cate Blanchett) who is in Morroco with her husband (Brad Pitt). Now the man is stuck with his wounded wife in a foreign land with no immediate medical support and with the obstacles of language and beauracracy to take care of.
Meanwhile back home in the US, their kids are under the supervision of their Mexican nanny Amelia (Adriana Barraza). With the parents stuck at US, it seems that the Nanny has no means of attending her son’s marriage in Mexico. So with no other assistance around, she makes the rather unwise decision of taking the kids along across the border with the help of a rather undependable nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal).
Meanwhile the media has made a hot shot news story out of the shooting accident, which now takes a ‘terrorist’ angle. So obviously there is an immediate look into the rifle and the origin of the rifle.
This is where the fourth story comes into play. The rifle is traced back to a Japanese man who is no terrorist but a father struggling to connect with his deaf and mute daughter. The daughter Chieko, meanwhile is still coping with the loss of her mother and instead makes nothing but bad choices which drives her in the pursuit of booze, drugs, nightclubs,boys and sex.
The nightclub sequence with its lighting and sound is certainly a highlight sequence that gives us an insight into Chieko’s experience being at such a place.
Kikuchi gives a rather marvelous performance without a word being uttered.
Besides the outstanding performance for Kikuchi, the rest of the cast is all equally praiseworthy. Performances from Blanchett is as usual solid and surprisingly, Brad Pitt also puts his heart out to be an actor and not a star. Watch him breaking down as he talks to his kids on the phone.
Equally commendable performances are seen all across the board especially from the Arabic lads most notable Abu Baker as Yousuf. Adriana Barraza as the nanny also gives a wonderful account of herself and is well supported by the two kids (Elle Fanning and Nathan Gamle) and not to forget Gael Bernal as the nephew who leaves them stranded at the border.
The cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto is outstanding and covers the various plots and locales extremely well, be it the opening Moroccon landscape shots or the closing Tokyo skyscrapers. And ofcourse a rather notable theme from Gustavo Santaolalla.
BABEL, in many ways was no masterpiece. However for most of its running time, it is powerful drama giving us a look simultaneously on how people across the world are affected through a chain of events, which from an everyday perspective might seem so normal.
Essentially the most important link between these tales of pathos and lack of love is the stages of marriage across the globe. In Mexico, a marriage is blooming while in Tokyo, a family is coping up with the aftereffects of a dead marriage. And in the middle of it, somewhere in Mexico, a couple is working out their marriage and trying to get it back on track. This certainly is a link that cannot be overlooked
However I find that Inarritu was not really trying to drive home his message here and instead it tries to keep it as a secret. Though he slowly peels it off and unravels it bit by bit, we find that even at the end he leaves a lot to the viewers to dig out what is left of it.
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In many ways that one, it may not be Inarritu’s best wholesome product when you compare it to his earlier works like AMOERES PERROS and 21 GRAMS. But somehow he tried something bigger with this picture, and he might actually reap bigger rewards for this piece. It still does not make it a masterpiece, but yes, forcibly it can be thrown to you later on as one. I shall not be surprised.
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