Babel
By John Sheridan, Blockbuster.co.uk
“I killed the American, I was the only one who shot at you. They did nothing... nothing. Kill me, but save my brother, he did nothing... nothing. Save my brother... he did nothing.”
From the director of 21 Grams and Amores Perros Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu comes this brilliant thriller that was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar® at the 2007 Academy Awards®.
For those of you familiar with Inarritu’s last two films, you will be aware that this director likes to break his storyline’s up in order to make his movie’s more interesting, only bringing them together at the end of the film. 21 Grams took this to the extreme with not only breaking up the plot but mixing up the chronology of the story to the point where the audience was left guessing to what happened when. This was to symbolise the fact that the brain doesn’t process traumatic events in chronological order but instead breaks this into moments or events. Needless to say, this was interesting stuff however confused the average punter.
This time, Inarritu has a more straightforward story. A gripping multi-character drama that starts in Morocco and also takes place in Japan, Mexico and the United States.
Two young brothers in Morocco are practicing with their father’s gun when they shoot a tour bus, accidently hitting Susan (
Cate Blanchett), the wife of Richard (
Brad Pitt), an American tourist. The American government immediately declares that there has been a terrorist attack and the Moroccan police crack down on the area, urgently trying to capture the attacker to appease the Americans and ensure that their tourist industry is unaffected.
The boys involved panic and scatter while Richard desperately tries to get Susan to a doctor or hospital, eventually ending up in a small Moroccan town – the hometown of one of the tourguides. After being initially sympathetic to their plight, the other tourists on the bus start to rebel and it is not long before they threaten to leave the couple in the middle of nowhere.
The film then heads to Japan and America to follow two other story threads. In Japan, a deaf-mute girl Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) is trying desperately to be noticed by men and to be accepted by her peers – she is shocking, moving and funny all at the same time. In America, a Mexican nanny (Andraina Barraza) ends up taking the two American children across the border with her to Mexico so she can attend her son’s wedding when the children’s father rings to tell her that he cannot get cover for her and insists that she will need to stay with the children. Everything goes well until her hot-headed nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal) clashes with a clearly racist border patrol guard.
While at first glance, each of these threads is unconnected, however as the film progresses, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu masterfully mingles the plots until these eventually merge at the end of the film. This makes Babel evermore gripping – boasting some real ‘edge of your seat’ moments. All in all excellent stuff. Highly recommended to rent – add to your list now.