Babel
Rating = B+
I was engaged in this movie from beginning to
end. The director's motto seems to be that there is no situation so tense and
bad that it can't get worse. The themes I recognized in the movie are almost
too many to enumerate: people around the world are connected, raising children
is a lot of trouble, a death in the family can cause an emotional flip-out,
people talk different languages (Spanish, English, Moroccan, Japanese, Japanese
sign language), people talk past each other whether or not they speak the same
language, people aren't very nice to each other, and so forth. The acting was
fine, and I enjoyed contemplating that the four sets of actors never had to
meet each other in real life and their scenes essentially could be shot as
separate movies. The movie gives a great sense of what is it like at every
location shown.
[2007-01-12]