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Babel (2006) Certificate 15

Babel
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Rated 3.0 stars
Average rating
(63%)
 
Starring: Cate Blanchett | Brad Pitt | Gael Garcia Bernal | Koji Yakusho | Adriana Barraza | Rinko Kikuchi
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Studio: PARAMOUNT
Run time: 142 mins
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Released: May 21, 2007
Also available on: Also Available on: blu_ray Also Available on: hd_dvd

In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out - detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief. In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost - lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves - as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love.

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Highest rated reviews

158 out of 174 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5 stars
Painful but amazing

flower from , 17th November, 2006

I urge everyone to go see this film - at the cinema if possible - to be part of the incredible emotional journey this movie takes you on. The film is composed of three concurrent storylines set in three different locations: Morocco, Japan and Mexico. The stories are formed like one photograph that has been ripped into three and then pasted back together in crooked fashion - the points of connection make an incredible, indelible impact on you. Notable performances for me are those of Brad Pitt, Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi and the young goat herder Boubker Ait El Caid, all victims of the mysteries of small, but significant moments of chance. This is a tapestry of emotion and how a moment in time can change everything. It's heartbreaking and painful - but ultimately a great and thought-provoking journey.

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70 out of 83 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2 stars
Babel

SAI81 from from Tonbridge, 18th March, 2007

In Morocco an American tourist (Blanchett) is shot. Babel explores the stories of all the people associated with this one shot. Babel is an important film. It’s got something to say. It’s about humanity. It’s about how we all relate to each other. It’s about the consequence of even the smallest action. Well, that’s what Babel thinks. In fact it’s a deeply tedious multi-stranded drama so convinced of its own importance and brilliance that it vanishes up its own arse long before the credits roll. There’s no questioning the strength of the acting. The cast is starry and impressive. Pitt buries himself in old age make up (to play a man just six years older than he is) and puts in an emotional showing that marks him once again as one of America’s most interesting actors. Blanchett is also unimpeachable, but her role is limited to lying on the floor and screaming. The other known quantity, Bernal, has much the same problem, he’s excellent, but there’s little for him to do. It is though the unknowns who steal the limelight. Oscar nominated Barraza is excellent as Amelia, the Mexican nanny to Pitt and Blanchett’s characters. It’s a largely dialled down and subtle piece of acting but I’ll bet that the Oscar clip moment will be Barraza’s least impressive in the movie, her only histrionic moment. Even better is fellow nominee Rinko Kikuchi as deaf mute Japanese girl Cheiko. Her performance is necessarily entirely based on body language and expression. It’s easy to become pantomimic in these roles but Kikuchi never is, she uses her whole body (literally) in her performance and offers stunning depth of character in a tricky role. What’s the problem then? It’s a well acted, good looking movie but good God is it ever dull. In Morocco, particularly with Pitt and Blanchett, nothing happens, they sit on a floor and wait for a helicopter. The second Moroccan story has more to recommend it, at least there are events, but it’s rote, predictable and never truly engaging. In Mexico Barraza lifts proceedings somewhat but again there’s not a single unexpected turn to the story and little sense of drama (it’s a movie, they aren’t going to kill the cute kids off). Japan is the highlight. It contains the few moments of the film that will live in the memory. A stunning sequence in a nightclub is the highlight as the sound first fills the cinema and the cuts out eerily as we cut into Cheiko’s POV. However it simply doesn’t belong in this movie. It connects to the rest late in the day and in a laughably tenuous fashion. Overall though it’s the tone of the film that sinks it. With every frame you can see the Oscar campaign being prepared, the clips being chosen. It’s like being preached at about your responsibilities to your fellow man by a particularly dull politician, for 150 minutes. Then, just as I thought I could not get more annoyed at Babel, Inarritu closes it with a mawkish dedication to his children (which, in a moment that made me proud to be British, drew boos). This should have been a great movie. Instead it’s an irritating one

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42 out of 56 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4 stars
Long...but definately worth it.

PaulaWestwood from , 7th February, 2007

This is a really amazing film, to some I can see it could be a little drawn out (at 2hrs 22 minutes it is long), but any shorter than this would not let it delve as deeply and very interestingly into the lives and cultures of the several distinctly separate, but in the end in some way connected peoples. As an outline, the points of interest are essentially a Mexican nanny working in the US, Moroccan goatheards, a Japanese one parent family and American tourists, along with the surrounding countries, and cultures. This is a real window on the various differences in the lives involved, and of the effects on them from outside influences and perceptions. All in all it is very watchable throughout. Rinko Kikuchi is simply astounding as the deaf mute Japanese Teenager Chieko. The way she brings over the life of Chieko is just superb. Rather than being necessarily thrilling, if you can sit through an intelligent and interesting film for over two hours, then this is definately for you. It really is worth recommending highly.

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37 out of 40 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3 stars
Not as good as its predecessors

wreeve from , 27th January, 2007

If you have not seen Amores Perros or 21 grams, then go see them first. If you have, and are excited, as I was, for the 'third in the trilogy', then be warned - this is nothing like as good. There are two good things about this movie. The approach, as per AP and 21g, still retains its interest level and keeps you engaged. And there is much some good character development. The Mexican nanny, in particular, is terrific - painting a wonderful picture of a deeply loving woman getting screwed by the less worthy family / officials who life's lottery deals to her in a 24 hour period. Rinko Kikuchi is excellent as the pubescent afflicted Tokyo teenager. And the cops, generally, are well drawn - they can cause misery despite simply doing the job the law asks of them, and being decent people. But in other respects this movie is a let-down. The incident that weaves the three threads together is a horrifying moment of sheer childhood stupidity. But it is too incredible to be relevant as an everyday accident, so loses the power of the equivalent moment in AP. And we lack empathy with almost all of the characters. Any rich Japanese hunters reading this review? Any deaf-mutes? Any Moroccan hill bandits? Part of the issue here is that the characters are well-drawn only in a one-dimensional way . The acting is fine, but it's not enough for us to root for these people or care too much about their tribulations. There may be some wider messages here, particularly about family bonds, and how easy it is for us to perceive hurt in our family's behaviour towards us, but I think I missed them. Overall, a supremely competent piece of film-making which never quite connects the audience to its characters. Not a bad film, just one there is no point in seeing - see its excellent predecessors, or see something else.

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Most recent reviews

Rated 0 stars
Babel 2006

A Customer from Linconlshire, 15th March, 2010

If you rent this film because you are a Brad Pitt fan then dont! He is only in it briefly and the story is rubbish....I found it painful to watch.

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Rated 4 stars
Interesting montage

Sezzle from , 26th February, 2010

A well made collection of stories that keep you guessing to the end whether they link to each other at all, and many quite tenuously. The film develops some interesting characters as you watch them through the most emotional stories of their lives, with an ending that is not at all predictable. It is incredibly watchable, though demanding.

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Rated 2 stars
fair

A Customer from London, 25th February, 2010

this dvd was a bit confuing for me to follow there was three part first a woman gets shot and left hanging on to dear life the second was kids in the mountains shooting at people overall it was emotional but istruggled to make any sense of it

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Rated 0 stars
Babble

A Customer from Matlock, 22nd February, 2010

This is a disjointed, not very well photographed, rambling 'story' with several sub-plots only tenuously linked, none of which is decently developed and some of which are downright ludicrous. A waste of several good actors and a large amount of emulsion.

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