“Babel” opens with a Middle Eastern man pacing the desert. He sells a rifle to a goat farmer who is the father of three. The audience is then transported west. A Mexican nanny looks after two American children. Then, back east to Tokyo: A young, deaf, Japanese girl plays volleyball. These three plots, although set in different regions, tell the same story: the story of humanity.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who directed “21 Grams,” meticulously guides this intertwined story in a way that is both intriguing and engaging. One scene, the audience is captivated, hoping the innocent American children make it out of the desert; the next, the Japanese girl is humiliated by a group of boys. Inarritu switches seamlessly between each locale, each more moving and emotional than the last.
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are two big names in “Babel.” They play an American couple on vacation in the Middle East. Their characters are also the parents of the American children in one of the other plot lines. The script, however, essentially has three different casts that cut Pitt and Blanchett’s screen time down to less than one-tenth the entire movie. That’s not a bad thing when the heartfelt writing and sincere filmmaking of “Babel” out shadows any individual performance. The same went for the touching, Oscar-winning “Crash.” The big-budget actors weren’t needed.
“Babel” and “Crash” share other traits. The type of non-linear storytelling, the parallels shown between all people of different languages and the intertwining situations highlight different aspects of humanity in both movies. “Babel” differs in its look globally, showcasing cultures across the world.
The biggest emotional pull from the movie comes from the Middle Eastern family. The goat farmer lets his sons take the gun while taking the goats to graze. They wonder about the range of the gun and shoot at a bus miles away. When the bullet hits an American tourist (Blanchett), the father and his two boys run from local law-enforcement.
They are eventually tracked and pinned under police gunfire. One boy dies, and the other confesses. Throughout the movie, the American government says the gunmen (the boys) were terrorists and action must be taken. The political undertones aren’t prevalent in the least. They merely provide a faint backdrop to the emotional connections between an American husband and wife and Middle Eastern family.
Some social clichés are present, like the bus full of frightened American tourists, or the tech-savvy Japanese girl. These were minor drawbacks from the overall superb quality of film. The acting is executed perfectly and is backed with beautiful cinematography. “Babel” is a cut above and one to catch in the next few weeks.
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