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Continuing the exploration of hyperlink cinema after 21 Grams (and years ago, Amores Perros, and debatably Go and Pulp Fiction). Here we have four strands, one with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as the Ugly Americans on a bus tour in Morocco, when one of them is shot by accident. Meanwhile, their nanny/maid Amelia (Adriana Barraza) is left to look after their children as the day of her son’s wedding dawns. Unable to find a sitter, she takes them to Mexico with her, and has a nightmare journey home. Meanwhile in Morocco, two goat herders Yussef and Ahmed (Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchini) have been playing with a new rifle. Meanwhile in Japan, Chieko Wataya (Rinko Kikuchi) is discovery on sexuality and dealing with the death of her mother.
It’s less tangled than 21 Grams, although the intercut narratives are not told sequentially, and hence there is less of a sense of wondering what the point was. Intriguingly there is a sense of a thriller in here trying to get out – the trailer is very much can the Americans abroad in a hostile north Africa reach safety? in its tone and cutting. At the same time the Japanese thread (it’s not right to call it a subplot even if it tens towards being one) feels welded on to the other three.
Again, an artistic decision has been taken – or Iñárritu is doing his schtick again – and the question is whether it was the right one. Yes, there are moments of real tension, and I wasn’t sure whether the characters would survive. But it almost becomes Brechtian – I think I cared less about the Japanese narrative because it was intercut.
Babel derives from the Tower – but is it the universal language that is being alluded to or the confusion after the fall of the tower? (This is post 9/11 of course.) Amelia I feel is punished too much for one bad decision. Not as disappointing as I expected.
It’s less tangled than 21 Grams, although the intercut narratives are not told sequentially, and hence there is less of a sense of wondering what the point was. Intriguingly there is a sense of a thriller in here trying to get out – the trailer is very much can the Americans abroad in a hostile north Africa reach safety? in its tone and cutting. At the same time the Japanese thread (it’s not right to call it a subplot even if it tens towards being one) feels welded on to the other three.
Again, an artistic decision has been taken – or Iñárritu is doing his schtick again – and the question is whether it was the right one. Yes, there are moments of real tension, and I wasn’t sure whether the characters would survive. But it almost becomes Brechtian – I think I cared less about the Japanese narrative because it was intercut.
Babel derives from the Tower – but is it the universal language that is being alluded to or the confusion after the fall of the tower? (This is post 9/11 of course.) Amelia I feel is punished too much for one bad decision. Not as disappointing as I expected.
