Jeb's Movie Reviews: Babel

Well this makes last year's Best Picture nod to Crash look even stupider in hindsight.

Not that Babel should win the Best Picture. Absolutely not. I've yet to see Letters from Iwo Jima or The Queen but The Departed was clearly better. And that doesn't include Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men which I think were the two best films of 2006 (so far). But Babel completely and utterly shames Crash in nearly every way. (Note- I don't think Crash is a bad movie. But there's a clear barrier between a decent film and one that deserves a Best Picture. Crash is one of the "worst" Best Picture winners I've ever seen and clearly should have been a distant fifth in last year's awards ceremony). But this review isn't about last year. It's about Babel. So what did I like about it?

First off, it's more mature in tone. The message about problems with communication between different cultures isn't shoved down our throats as much as which last year's Best Picture winner was guilty of. The situations aren't completely outlandish (ok at times they strain credulity, but it's within the realm of possibility). The acting was very strong as well. When Cate Blanchett only has the third best performance by a female, that's pretty strong. Like all the other pundits, I especially loved Rinko Kukuchi. Her arc is the best written and best acted. At first it seems out of place with the other three subplots going on, but after awhile you realize the connection between them all. There are some touching subtleties as well in her arc alone. I keep praising her storyline, but her segment also had the most impressive sequence in the film. She enters a club with her friend to party with some other people including a guy she clearly likes. I should point out that Rinko's character is a deaf-mute. Anyway, they enter he club and it's very loud and exciting. And then the camera switches to a first person view out of Rinko's eyes. Silence. She's fascinated by the lights and everything going on around. But she can't hear a thing. Probably only being able to see is a sensory overload. The camera alternates back and forth with the sound going on and off and there's some great editing throughout. Finally, the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, does a great job of keeping the story lines going smoothly. The most dangerous thing in ensemble films like this is to keep the storylines on the track and I think he does a pretty good job. Crash didn't do so well last year.

Of course there were some problems. Several of the stories seem truncated and underdeveloped. Others seem to go on longer than they should. The pacing does get off at times. Some situations seem to be placed solely as a device and not really to advance the plot. I really didn't notice any of these problems until about an hour and half in (it's about two and a half hours). Give them credit for keeping it up that long without major problems. But the third act is much weaker than the rest of the film. Also the film does have the opposite problem that Crash did. Crash made sure we knew that racism is bad. But the general theme is harder to explain for Babel. I mentioned it was about difficulties in communicating between cultures, but the focus does shift wildly at times. In a the film could be both longer and shorter. Longer to bring more depth to the stories. Shorter to give it more focus.

It's hard to criticize ambitious works too much. I always give points for at least trying. And Babel certainly did try and certainly succeeds incredibly at times. As I said I especially loved the subplot in Japan and as one reviewer mentioned, it would have made a fine movie by itself. You should watch Babel to see what all the fuss is about. But it is not tops in this genre. If you want to see the best, see Magnolia, Short Cuts, Nashville, or Gosford Park. And then explain to me in case Babel wins, why Babel or Crash deserve Best Picture over the list I recommend.