Babel – a mythical name which stands for confusion created by languages. And this can very well happen to you if you get a pirated copy of the movie. That's what I did, but thankfully, the confusion is minimal as most of the movie can be understood without knowing the languages (Arabian, Mexican, Japanese), which is saying a lot for any film.
The story revolves around a rifle and the repercussions it makes, literally and figuratively. The concept is similar to that of The Butterfly Effect, but the way it is handled is more documentary-like. A Moroccan family buys a rifle to protect its herd of sheep from jackals. An estranged couple tries to come to terms with differences of opinion while vacationing in Morocco. Their kids are back in the U.S., under the care of a Mexican baby-sitter. A stray bullet hits the wife, and lives go haywire: The Moroccan siblings who played with the rifle learn the "stress" word. The American couple faces apathy from comrades; surprisingly, finds a comrade in a native; ironically, comes closer in strife. The baby-sitter, in for "longer hours", chooses to take the kids along with her to Mexico for her son's wedding, only to face border trouble on her way back. There is a fourth family, but more of it later.
The director Alejandro Gonzalez has so brought out the performances that it does not seem at all that the actors are 'acting'. Be it the rugged Moroccan family or Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett or Rinko Kikuchi or Adriana Barazza, all emote so naturally as if one were witness to an actual event, and not watching a movie. A case in point is the scene where Yussef surrenders himself. You actually get a lump in your throat, what though you be a pachyderm, which I am. The cinematography is top-notch, the pathos of circumstances being aptly evinced by barren landscapes and vivid colours (mark, in particular, the shock of Amelia's red gown trailing down the earthy terrain dotted with green coppice). And the music: one significant aspect of a movie is the way a director uses sound. We see long stretches of scenes in the movie without one background score, and then we come across a 15-second strain of a guitar. The effect: brilliantly subtle. Of course, many scenes are such which are wholly traversed without one word being spoken, only the background music playing away. The effect: subtly relieving. No wonder, the movie won the Oscar for the best Original Score.
So what goes wrong with the movie? Here comes the part of the fourth 'interwoven' story, that of the Japanese deaf-and-dumb girl, Cheiko. It would have been better to hive it off into a completely different film, rather than trying to construe a vague connection with the roots of the rifle. The sequence is touching, but it does not merit fusion, and definitely not the pedestal of the last scene. Other things too seem a little of a drag: the long dance sequence at the Mexican wedding, the 'drug effect' experienced by Cheiko One major irregularity with the film is the security-check problem faced by Amelia on the return journey. What about the onward journey? Didn't the police find it suspicious as to why two Mexicans had two American children on their way to Mexico? But these are aspects you can ignore when the 'whole' touches a nerve somewhere. And this film touches the finest nerve – that connecting the heart. And so it succeeds.
The story revolves around a rifle and the repercussions it makes, literally and figuratively. The concept is similar to that of The Butterfly Effect, but the way it is handled is more documentary-like. A Moroccan family buys a rifle to protect its herd of sheep from jackals. An estranged couple tries to come to terms with differences of opinion while vacationing in Morocco. Their kids are back in the U.S., under the care of a Mexican baby-sitter. A stray bullet hits the wife, and lives go haywire: The Moroccan siblings who played with the rifle learn the "stress" word. The American couple faces apathy from comrades; surprisingly, finds a comrade in a native; ironically, comes closer in strife. The baby-sitter, in for "longer hours", chooses to take the kids along with her to Mexico for her son's wedding, only to face border trouble on her way back. There is a fourth family, but more of it later.
The director Alejandro Gonzalez has so brought out the performances that it does not seem at all that the actors are 'acting'. Be it the rugged Moroccan family or Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett or Rinko Kikuchi or Adriana Barazza, all emote so naturally as if one were witness to an actual event, and not watching a movie. A case in point is the scene where Yussef surrenders himself. You actually get a lump in your throat, what though you be a pachyderm, which I am. The cinematography is top-notch, the pathos of circumstances being aptly evinced by barren landscapes and vivid colours (mark, in particular, the shock of Amelia's red gown trailing down the earthy terrain dotted with green coppice). And the music: one significant aspect of a movie is the way a director uses sound. We see long stretches of scenes in the movie without one background score, and then we come across a 15-second strain of a guitar. The effect: brilliantly subtle. Of course, many scenes are such which are wholly traversed without one word being spoken, only the background music playing away. The effect: subtly relieving. No wonder, the movie won the Oscar for the best Original Score.
So what goes wrong with the movie? Here comes the part of the fourth 'interwoven' story, that of the Japanese deaf-and-dumb girl, Cheiko. It would have been better to hive it off into a completely different film, rather than trying to construe a vague connection with the roots of the rifle. The sequence is touching, but it does not merit fusion, and definitely not the pedestal of the last scene. Other things too seem a little of a drag: the long dance sequence at the Mexican wedding, the 'drug effect' experienced by Cheiko One major irregularity with the film is the security-check problem faced by Amelia on the return journey. What about the onward journey? Didn't the police find it suspicious as to why two Mexicans had two American children on their way to Mexico? But these are aspects you can ignore when the 'whole' touches a nerve somewhere. And this film touches the finest nerve – that connecting the heart. And so it succeeds.
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