Babel

Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel has looked interesting since I first saw previews and posters for Cannes in Paris last May. I was going to dl it, but I'm glad I didn't, and saw it in theatre.

I saw it with Ben and Tgirl who said it was a 'typical foreign film' ... I don't know what that means, and I'm not even sure Babel qualifies as a foreign film. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The acting was good, the setting was transnational yet super rooted culturally, and the soundtrack was excellent. The plot wasn't strong - compared with a typical american plot driven movie, but that wasn't the point.

Rinko Kikuchi was definitely the star of the film, though I may have seen her in a film or two before, she was excellent in this film. She was the character we got to know best, and yet big name actors like Pitt, Blanchette, and Gael García Bernal seemed to have more minor roles. Odd.

I'm not quite sure what Iñárritu is trying to get at. I would have thought that it was mostly about how we are all connected to one another around the globe, but apparently he himself says that it's about the modern family. Anyway ...

It seems like Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, and Crash all share similar story lines ... Crash and 21 grams were weaker. Crash seemed too comercial. 21 grams was decent, and it did feature Charlotte Gainsbourg, but I'm not sure it was as clear. Amores Perros is classic, but Babel was cool because it seemed to connect the whole world and leave it so open for interpretation.


8/10