Babel (2006)

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Story: Guillermo Arriaga

Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Gael García Bernal

Music: Gustavo Santaolalla

Time: 136 minutes

Bottom-line: Well-paced story, but not as engaging as Amores Perros or 21 Grams

Iñárritu’s ends his “Death trilogy” on a high note, with his third feature film, Babel. The film follows four different storylines connected by a twist of fate, and is narrated in a “partial” hyperlink structure (in the sense that different incidents connect different parts of the story). When two boys in Morocco try out their father's new hunting rifle, they accidentally maim an American tourist, Susan Jones (Blanchett), who has come on a tour with her husband, Richard (Pitt). With communication proving to be a problem and political issues rising between the US and Moroccan governments, Richard must find a way to save his wife…and fast. As the Moroccan police search for the shooter, they trace the rifle to a Japanese man, whose daughter, Chieko (Kikuchi) is a deaf-mute, rebellious teenage girl, traumatised by the recent suicide of her mother. 

 

Pitt as Richard, and Blanchett as Susan

Meanwhile Richard’s two other children, Mike and Debbie, are taken across the border to Mexico by their Mexican nanny, Amelia (Barraza), for a day. Amelia’s nephew, Santiago (Bernal) warns that it might cause problems with the authorities. When they return, with Santiago heavily intoxicated, the border patrol officers ask for permission letters from the parents to take the kids across. Santiago realises they are in trouble and trespasses the border.

 

Barraza as Amelia, with the children: Debbie and Mike

Unlike Amores Perros and 21 Grams, here, no single incident or theme links all the stories. The one “moral” of the film is that ultimately, your family is all you have, when everything else is gone. The Moroccan family is torn apart after the accidental shooting leads the police onto them; the Japanese girl is troubled after a ghastly family matter; the husband-wife couple is also distraught, while their children find a new “mother” in their nanny. Along with films like No Country for Old Men, Babel also shows how fate brings about misery to (seemingly) innocent people, and how characters so far apart physically are actually connected. The reason for the title itself follows from the story of the “Tower of Babel”, where God scattered the people across the world and confounded their speech, making communication almost impossible.

 

Kikuchi as Chieko

I fail to understand the significance of the Japanese storyline; probably the only message intended to convey is that such a tiny link (related to the rifle) can have a huge consequence (as much as tearing apart a family miles away in Mexico), but as such, it was not satisfactory; there is the scene towards the end where Chieko writes a note, whose contents are never revealed (like the scene in Lost in Translation), which makes this part of the story even more bizarre. However, Rinko Kikuchi has done an outstanding job, in expressing her anger, sexual craving, and depression. The other highlight is Adriana Barraza, who plays the Mexican nanny; she turns out to be an innocent victim of the cruelty of fate, and her acting in the desert and towards the end, is brilliant enough to make you empathise with her pitiable situation. Brad Pitt and Blanchett comparatively have lesser screen time.

 

The Moroccan family 

The Mexican and Moroccan tracks don’t have any plot twists as such, except revealing the connection between the different people involved. There is a lot of drama and emotional outbreaks to keep the pace steady, and in this film too, not all ends are tied up; some things like Santiago’s fate, the contents of the note – to name a few – are unknown. Somehow I felt that Babel has lesser amount of the Iñárritu trademarks in terms of story, but the technical aspects are excellent: the score, settings and to some extent, cinematography too.

The third collaboration between Iñárritu, Arriaga and Santaolalla brings together different countries, cultures, families, backgrounds, all in one story, and the variety involved is something I appreciate. Babel is less entertaining compared to 21 Grams and Amores Perros, but it has its own strengths. Garnering seven Academy Award nominations and winning one for Best Original Score, this is one of the underrated films of 2006.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 69%