.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." Genesis Chapter 11
The biblical story of Babel tells of how the world came to have different languages. As the story was written, a tower was built towards the Heavens and God then confused the construction by changing the languages of the workers. Unable to communicate, the construction was abandoned.

Being familiar with the Biblical story of Babel will do nothing to aide in your understanding and appreciation for the new Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams) film, Babel. In the film, we follow three separate stories in three separate languages that all have a common connection.

The first story follows two American tourists in Morocco (played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett). As Richard and Susan, this married couple are taking a vacation from their San Diego home and two children in an attempt to find forgiveness and redemption after the death of their son. But, while taking a bus ride through the mountains, Susan is accidentally shot through the bus window by a sharp shooting young child who is playing with the gun his father gave him to shoot jackals from the family's goat herd.

The incident sets off an international firestorm with worldwide media reporting the shooting as an act of terrorism against the United States. As the manhunt intensifies for the shooters, Susan struggles in a nearby village to survive while the American Embassy works to provide her medical support.

In a separate story, the children of Richard and Susan are left in the care of their illegal housekeeper. With the couple still in Morocco, they are taken to Mexico for the evening so that the maid could attend her son's wedding. Their reentry into the United States leads to complications and the housekeeper and children find themselves stranded in the desert in a desperate attempt to find help.

And in the third story, a Japanese deaf-mute schoolgirl yearns for acceptance from both her father and the men around her that seem uninterested in her budding sexuality. Her bustling hormones lead her down a slippery path that has the young pubescent trying desperately to use her body in an attempt to find the affections of a man.

Got it? Good.

Babel is truly a film about language and communication. As Richard and Susan are struggling with the Moroccans to get them to understand their situation, there are also fighting with other members of the tour bus that want driven back to safety and with their own government who is cutting red tape (due to communication) in an effort to send air support. Communication is also at the heart of the story of the two children and the housekeeper. As the border patrol does not give the adult and her nephew the opportunity to explain their intentions, they run from the law and their actions have life altering results.

But maybe most interesting is how the story of the deaf-mute schoolgirl and her inability to communicate relates to the story of Babel. Unable to express herself in words, she utilizes her naked body in an effort to seek the attention she so desires. If the Biblical story of Babel chronicles how without communication, we are destined to fail, this story personifies the point to the greatest exponent. Who would have thought that the story of someone who cannot talk would teach us so much about how poorly we communicate as a civilization.

Unfortunately, Babel is yet another exercise of non-linear storytelling. We go from story to story transcending time in a tired formula that strains the limits of patience in their particular effort. Just as we begin to relate and have any emotional attachment to Susan and Richard, we are quickly shuffled to Japan where we can only strain to relate to the young schoolgirl only to be shuffled to Mexico, then back to Japan, then….well, you get the point. We go in and out of each story without the investment of any emotional time necessary to drive home feelings towards any of the characters' plights. This translates into there being no payoff by the time the film finally concludes.

This then takes Babel from a prematurely touted Oscar contender to simply a good film that cannot hold the weight of Alejandro González Iñárritu's two previous efforts. Although the acting is fine and the stories on their own are interesting and intriguing, together they just didn't have the Krazy Glue necessary to keep the attention span of the average movie-goer. I consistently looked at my watch during the screening and as lives were held in the balance of the film's running time, I just didn't care enough to become 'moved' by any of the character's outcomes.

By no means does this mean a complete failure by the director. By the time his career is over, I would hope that I could give this film another shot as part of a Director's compilation DVD set, but until then, I am still left with a bad taste in my mouth, and for a movie that is all about communication, I just don't seem to want to recommend it to anyone.