Babel (film)

(Official Site)

There are four interspersed stories within Babel, each narrative starring its own protagonists and featuring its own problems. The critical moment is when Susan, an American tourist, is shot while riding a tour bus in Morocco. As the emergency unfolds, the audience realises how the separate stories become intertwined in the one incident. But there is more than one life in the balance - in turn, each story reveals its own tragedy.

Set in Morocco, the USA, Japan and Mexico, the film jumps between the four locations and the four stories within them in a non-linear way. It is done in a manner that makes for interesting viewing rather than a confusing story. Because the film is fragmented into different pieces, due to the different stories, it almost makes sense to have time jump within the film as well. The result makes the film more clever in its use of a climax for each segment, leaving the audience needing more information to complete each story.

However it is the movie's overriding theme of language that is the most interesting aspect (yes, there are subtitles for the non-English speaking parts). The highlight of this theme is the deaf-mute Japanese girl, Chieko, who is the centrepiece for the segment relayed in Japanese, sign language and body language. Chieko's predicament is her inability to communicate her desires, which frustrates her and leads her to all sorts of emotional strife, which is portrayed extremely well by the actress Rinko Kikuchi.

The biggest failing of the movie, however, is that the interconnected stories do not come full circle and fold back into each other. Instead, each has a separate, albeit satisfactory, closure. Furthermore, Chieko's story is rather tenuously connected to the others, which is a glaring weakness in the film's linking device.

The premise is an excellent one and there is nothing wrong with the stories as self-contained narratives. Alejandro González Iñárritu interweaves them well and he deserves all those nominations for Best Director awards. As for the film, I do not believe it was as good as it could have been considering its narrative foundations and an excellent cast (especially the unknowns!) so I predict that it will probably miss out on a sweep of accolades during the impending award season.

*** 1/2 - didn't reach its full potential.