Babel: A Network of Separate Storylines

There have been many films throughout film history which attempt to depict a sense of irony through a confusing network of separate storylines which at first, have no connections, but later prove to be critically reliant to one another. Babel is another one of these films.

There have also been many films throughout film history which explore the universal themes of love, anger, alienation, and hatred while putting it all in a blender and making an emotional roller-coaster ride out of it with beautifully cut scenes and multiple geographic locations. Again, Babel is another one of them.

Indeed, we have previously seen many films which successfully employ several dramas and plotlines into one film and then tie it all together with irony (e.g. Short Cuts, Magnolia). What places Babel apart? For one, it is the same screenwriter, Guillermo Arriaga Jordan, as 21 Grams and Amores Perros, in which if you don't know by now is the master at creating a multitude of separate stories while weaving them together in the end.

By not going into detail regarding any of the scenes, one is set in and around San Diego/Mexico, two in and around the third world villages of Morocco, while the fourth drama takes place in urban and electric Tokyo. Each story, in terms of strength, weakness, and dramatic scale vary slightly in intellectual meaning and in depth. For example, one comical scene in which Gael Garcia Bernal (from Y Tu Mama Tambien), who plays a stereotypical drunkard Mexican man with a mullet driving a beat-up sedan, is asked by a little white American boy if it is actually safe to go into Mexico.

Bernal's character playfully replies, "Of course not. There are a lot of Mexicans there!" This, however, sounds much funnier in Spanish. The dialogues throughout Babel are in English, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and French so chances are your favorite language is probably represented.

Because of Babel's cleverness in terms of irony and depth with regards to master screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga Jordan's ability to engage the audience and the stunning geographic locations (Mexican Border, Morocco, Tokyo), the versatility of the film will capture your heart, or at least capture your $20 when the DVD comes out.

If you are looking for a movie with no angst, sorrow, nor misfortune, this is probably not one to see. However, if you are looking for a movie about the fears of mortality, bad judgment, and bad luck, this is the right film - and a good one at that.

Chris Barsanti from FilmCritic.com (Nov, 2006) said in his review of Babel that the film, "Success only in making noise." If noise was the only thing critic Barsanti heard in Babel, then clearly he is blind.

With an all-star cast of Pitt, Blanchett, and Bernal and an all-star director-screenwriter combo of Inarritu and Jordan, Babel gets my two thumbs up. The movie which "succeeded in making noise," is arguably one of the best 2006 had to offer.