Babel is boldly directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu who directed Amores perros and 21 Grams. In this film, he showcases his refreshing technique once again with smooth story transitions and interesting camera pans. At first though it took me and my friends a few minutes to get caught up to speed with the story, while some aspects are not illuminated till three quarters into the film. I wish the film started with captions letting audiences know the locations they were seeing, instead of having to piece it together as it went along. The back and forth in time might be a bit confusing for some, but I appreciated the puzzle.
I was surprised though to see that Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett played some what minor roles in comparison to the other actors in the film. Their performances were good and their characters are important, but they were not the only ones. I was mainly impressed with all the child actors in the film and Kikiuchi’s soul-searching role as a brazen yet vulnerable coming-of-age deaf girl dealing with personal tragedy. In the final scene her emotional performance had me crying with empathy for her character.
Even though the film is 2 hour and 22 minutes long, the time went unnoticed by me since I eagerly awaited restitution and some closure for each storyline.
The Upside: A powerful and intelligent emotional roller coaster of a film.
The Downside: Some scenes are gorey and a bit gritty and raw.
On the Side: Rinko Kikuchi spent a year auditioning and learning sign language for her role.
Overall Grade: A-
Tara Settembre is a Senior Critic for Film School Rejects
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Francesca
Just wondered how others understood the ending-which seemed to cancel out the earlier misadventure in Mexico.
2 - Francesca
While I really liked this movie, I can't help wishing that writers would stop using the potentially manipulative emotional media of film as an indoctrination against enforcing the U.S.'s generous immigration laws, ironically on a par with Mexico's comparatively stringent immigration enforcement. Good film, but let other people think for themselves.
3 - lillie
acting excellent, storyline detached for a long time but eventually easy to connect the dots. a bit political but intense. enjoy but walk away saying...wow, what the hell?
4 - Grace Ford
I loved this film. I did get somewhat confused as to the outcome with Angelia. Did she get deported? The end shows Brad Pitt speaking to his son from the hospital and Angelina answers the phone. can anyone help me with this aspect.?
5 - mjr
The phone conversation first occurs early in the movie, and is simply repeated from Pitts side of the phone at the end of the movie.It also underscores how these traumatic events are going on without the other parties even knowing their import.
6 - lisa
What did the ending mean? what did the Japanese girl write in the letter to the policeman?
7 - kathy
I don't get it!!
8 - nattyice
So the final letter from the deaf japanese girl to the policeman says something about how she can't connect to the world, and how her mother may have committed suicide because she couldn't connect with her daughter; since this kinda contradicts the earlier scene when the girl says to her dad that her mom would pay attention, I would say that her mom did try to make that connection, but just couldn't communicate properly. and if you think about it, the overall theme of the movie is miscommunication and how many negative consequences can occur because of it... and if you ever read the bible, you know that when God destroyed the tower of "babel", nobody could speak the other's languages. Genesis 11:1-11
9 - Lorika
Does anyone knows what was written on the latter that the Japanese girl left to the policeman?
nattyice: do u understand Japanese language or u think that is what it was?
10 - unimpressed
I can't believe any of you are even wasting your time talking about this movie. It was the worst waste of 2 hrs of my life. I wouldn't subject my worst enemy to it. There was no plot to speak of. I spent the whole time waiting for something to happen, and it never did. They never said what was in the letter to the cop. We never found out what happened to the mexican drunk driver. And what happened to the troubled couple that were in the middle east? That was by far the worst movie I've ever seen in my life!
11 - Phil
A great movie. As for the end, the girl tells the cop that her mother jumped off the balcony, but dad later says, no she shot herself and the girl found her. Does the girl not want to relive the horror of finding her (after not, of course, hearing the gunshot) and so makes up the balcony jump? And, is it possible she shot herself with the very rifle that was later given away? Or even, did someone else shoot the mother with said rifle? Possible?
12 - J
I would agree with you on the girl not hearing her mother shotting herself, but it would be hard for her mother to shoot herself with a rifle maybe with smaller gun but not a rifle. Besides didn't the father of the Japaneses girl give the gun to the guy in Morocco. Furthermore, if the girl's father went to hunt with it then, why did he took the weapon with which his wife death?
13 - Sandeep
What was the need for the japanese part of the story at all? the rifle could have got into the moroccan man's hands from anywhere.
The movie does a terrible job of keeping the audience informed as to what is happening, and where its happening.
2 hours of my life wasted.
14 - Blippy Turgidson
Tiresome, bloated, self-important and utterly middlebrow.
15 - Academentia
The note describes how the Japansese girl was molested by her dad. She was planning to commit suicide by jumping off the bridge. That is why the policeman never went to 'save' her immediately, but she likely does not follow through because the final scene shows how her dad finally 'pays' attention to her again after 'nine months'. The dialogue alludes to this throughout the movie, as do her actions with older male characters.
16 - Academentia
I mean balcony!
17 - dinsman
Time Line of the movie that confused me at the beginning
1st day - The american woman was shot in the bus
End of 1st day - Angelina was called by Bratt Pitt from the hospital b4 they went to Mexico (after the gun tragedy in morroco)
2nd day - 2 American white kids missing near borderline
5th day - Starting of investigation about the gun at Japan involving daughter and her father (Thats why u can see the face of guilty morroco's boy on TV watched by japanese girl)
18 - nichele
i was thinking the same thing that maybe the girl was being molested by her father then when i thought about it she said her father never paid attention to her, but it seemed to me as if he made attempts to show intrest/affection, but she brushed him off then i was thinking maybe she shot her mother by a mistake and the father gave the gun away to protect his daughter and thats why there was this gap between them because she killed his wife . then i was thinking the reason for the title was revealed at the very end if you don't know crazy deaf teen japanese girl sign language then you'll have a misunderstanding of what actually took place!(babel=different languages so no one can understand what the hell is going on!)
19 - Sara Z.
I am into Japanese Culture research and even went there a few months ago to study their culture deeply, and somehting that surprised me is the very high rate of suicides in Japan, its an everyday thign, the reason they do this is when they discover a shameful thing about their inmediate family. They committ it to clean their honor, something that is even scary is that japanese are very respectful to someone´s suicide act, so dont even investigate further, it is just a decision to be respected. So watching this movie, makes me believe that the mother of the girl did committed suicided after finding out something shameful, probably her husband molesting her daugther, or even worse, her daughter seducing her dad, it seemed she had a sexual obsesion and at the end, I beleive she was also going to committ suicide out of shame of rejection of men toward her. Thats why she was naked on the balcony ready to jump.
20 - hadi aljubbah
The movie was perfect , period.
21 - Reezo
So what happened to those two white kids?
How were they tied to Morocco?
Those werent Pitt's kids were they?
22 - milind
Looks like Reezo was asleep !
The kids were Pitts kids
23 - Glebe
Reading some of these comments make me cringe.
For those of you confused:
The Mexican story & the Moroccan story are linked via the phone call between Pitt and Mike( Pitt's son).
The hospital waiting room scene towards the end of the film where you see Pitt crying on the phone, is the start of the Mexican story we saw at the beginning of the film.
I loved the Japanese Story. It was brilliant. She is deaf, IN JAPAN! and the relationships she has with her dad and her friends are so powerful.
And the police man at the end, views up and watches the News report and bam the Moroccan story.
I could watch a whole Japanese story just on her life.
24 - Doug
Great film. Pretty good even without the subtitles, and was only confused with the japanese scenes (although still confusing WITH the subtitles!).
@Glebe: you seem to have some opinions about the film. Do you think the mother committed suicide through inability to communicate or the father molesting her?
25 - Andy
This movie sucked..sorry! The worst part is i actually paid for this one haha