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To be honest, I've had enough of these 'multiple storylines to make a point' films, but Babel has had good reviews and is a frontrunner in the awards race. Another incentive for me was that it sounded similar to Amores Perros and 21 Grams, the director's previous films, which were both gripping and powerful experiences. There are three main plot threads, one set in Morocco, one in Mexico and one in Japan, which are only tenuously linked to each other. The storyline set in Japan didn't quite gel with the others, perhaps because it was the only one set in a developed country. The fact that the lead character in this strand was a deaf-mute girl seemed like a rather obvious and heavy-handed allusion to the film's overarching theme, that of humanity's inability and unwillingness to communicate. Still, the way Innaritu manipulated sound in the strand was excellent, especially in the scene in the nightclub where the sound kept alternating between the wall-shaking music and the silence representing what the girl could hear. The Morocco strand was the one featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but despite their presence this part of the film didn't receive any more emphasis than the others. The acting is absolutely superb across the board, with Pitt showing a side of himself not seen before. Other than the shooting that started this strand, the film took a long time to get going. The latter half was certainly more interesting but still quite slow, and I didn't feel the film's content justified its nearly two and a half hour running time. The film is certainly an emotional and hard-hitting journey but not one that particularly enthralled me the whole time.
The summary
Babel is one of those films that are easy to admire but hard to love. It's well-crafted but exhausting and slightly long-winded.
