Babel (2006)

DIRECTOR: Alejandro González Iñárritu
STUDIO: Paramount Vantage
STARRING: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal
RATING: R
GENRE: Drama

GRADE: B+


I have always been in love with the idea of different languages. I am currently minoring in French, know some elementary ASL and hope to learn Chinese one day. Ways of communication truly fascinate me, so this movie's multilingual aspect played to my positives.

This film has four stories, that all connect (think "Pulp Fiction") and the conflict in each story has to do with lack of communication. Primarily it is the language, but there is also a girl that is deaf-mute and there are two young brothers that cannot communicate their frustration to their father.

Although the idea of "many stories that tie together" has been overdone since 1994, this film doesn't just focus on the characters that interact, or even the problems that they all have. Actually, every problem is different. What makes this film so unique is that the connection to all four stories is the reason behind the problem, which makes it that much more fascinating. Overall, with all the praise I'm giving this film, one would assume it would have to be at least a "A-" however, there is a complaint that I cannot ignore:

I feel like I'm watching "Se7en" again, because the two characters that I did not care about at all were Brad Pitt's and Cate Blanchett's. I refrenence "Se7en" because in both movies, I feel that Pitt's acting is not to the level he should be at. He just underacts, and because of that, I lose sympathy. In both films, I do not care about him or his wife - so when trouble happens, I lose interest.

A very artistic movie, and though the theme is loose, I enjoy what Alejandro González Iñárritu was trying to do with the film on a whole. If Pitt's acting had been a bit stronger, it would have easily been an "A," but as it is: solid "B+."