Movie Review: Babel

According to the Genesis, it was at Babel that a multitude of humanity made efforts to create a tower that reached heaven. Their plans were however, put into disarray, when an irate God caused each person involved in the project to speak a different language, unintelligible to the others.
Such is the drift in the much appreciated Babel, mind-blowingly directed by Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu.

The actors brilliantly portray universal emotions of conflict, pettiness, helplessness, familial love, anguish, hope, anxiety. What looks like four disparate tales is not the case at all.

Besides starring one of my perennial favorites Brad Pitt (playing Richard), the movie also has powerhouse performances by Cate Blanchett (as Susan, Brad’s wife), Adriana Barraza(as the Mexican nanny, Amelia), and Rinko Kikuchi(as the traumatized, emotionally turbulent Japanese teenager, Cheiko).

On one of his hunting expeditions in Morocco, Cheiko’s father, an avid hunter, presented his rifle to Hassan, his tour guide. An ageing, poverty-stricken Hassan sells the rifle to goatherd Abdullah, who in turn gives the rifle to his two sons, Yussef and Ahmed, to scare the jackals that come to prey upon the goats.

What started as just another sibling fight between the two brothers Yussef and Ahmed to try out the range of the rifle, turns an ugly turn when a bullet hits Susan, vacationing in Morocco with Richard, to piece together their rapidly-failing marriage. The US is quick to denounce the stray incidence as terrorism, as can be seen in the almost instantaneous telecasts on global tele-csreens.

What follows next is anyone’s nightmare; Richard has more problems than just the language barrier to get the locals to attend to his grievously-injured wife. His fellow-travelers do a volte-face and within minutes change from concerned countrymen to sour strangers, leaving the couple to fend for themselves in an alien country. Their only savior is the tour-bus guide, Anwar, who acts as their interpreter, guide, and messiah of hope. In their hour of anguish though, Richard and Susan do come closer to each other (tut tut – me the incorrigible romantic).

Meanwhile, back home at Richard and Susan’s home in the US, their two kids are with their loyal nanny of 16 years, Amelia. It is Amelia’s son’s wedding, and as she is unable to find anyone to babysit her two wards, decides to take them along to the wedding in Mexico. They never make it back home: Amelia’s intoxicated nephew, Santiago (hottie Gael García Bernal) is driving them home, but their car is stopped by border guards. A visibly-panicky (and cussing) Santiago zooms past, only to be chased by the guards; he decides to leave his passengers in the desert, lose the guards, and come back for them later.

A distraught Amelia leaves the kids in the desert to look for help, but horror! horror! She is arrested.

The intricately-woven plot keeps you on the edge of your seat. A must-watch movie, you would be more than crazy to miss it. It's already bagged a couple of awards at Cannes and nominated for quite a few Golden Globes.

So, when are you watching it?