Babel
Feb 11 2007 Sun
2:36 pm PHT
If the previous entry was about a real Babel story, this one is about Babel, the movie, which I saw last night. I found film’s synopsis interesting and it won the Golden Globe Best Picture for drama, so the film got into my list of must-see movies. Fortunately, I was able to catch it before it gets booted out (only Gateway and some SM malls were screening it in the Metro).
In short, the film revolves around a central plot of a shooting of an American tourist in a remote part of Morocco. The story then delves into parallel yet connected subplots involving the Mexican nanny taking care of the American couple’s children in San Diego and Tijuana, and a rebellious deaf-mute Japanese teen girl in Tokyo.
It’s a very good film. Great and low-key acting by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (as the couple), and Rinko Kikuchi (as the Japanese teen). Exceptional editing and cinematography. A wonderful soundtrack. And a really good six- degrees-of-separation parallel plot.
I loved how the film juxtaposes scenes from middle-class Mexico, upper-class Japan, and lower-class Morocco into a intricately woven tale depicting U.S. paranoia on terrorism, a Mexican marriage, U.S. paranoia on illegal immigrants, Japanese club and drug culture, U.S. media frenzy, desolate living conditions in Morocco, and suicide in Japan.
Unfortunately, while the film is great, it’s not something that I would want to watch again. It’s not depressing like one person has said in ClickTheCity.com, but I guess it’s not entertaining or moving or relating enough for me to really consider seeing it again.
Basing on the movie’s title, I guess it wants to make a point about the breakdown of communication from the personal level up to the international level. The movie subtly shows that theme but I didn’t leave the movie theater feeling I picked up something substantial.
Comments
Comment times are in Philippine time (+0800).
1
On 3:12 p.m., 15 Feb 2007, drei wrote:
i love the director’s early films more. amores peros is one of my all time favorites, and 21 grams was also sensational and heavy in theme.
but i also love babel. esp that cate blanchet is in it.
2
On 7:48 p.m., 15 Feb 2007, seav wrote:
I haven’t seen Iñárritu’s other films. I’ll try to see if I can get ahold of Amores perros.
3
On 3:41 a.m., 19 Feb 2007, jeff wrote:
[quote]I didn’t leave the movie theater feeling I picked up something substantial.[/quote] [url=http://eskaparate.blogspot.com/2007/02/bill-gates-will-never-take-me-with-him.html] I felt the same way.[/url]
i hope the bbcode works. hahah
4
On 8:06 a.m., 19 Feb 2007, seav wrote:
jeff, no, bbcode doesn’t work. as well as any other known markup language (e.g., textile, markdown). I have my own markup system in place. hehehe.
(i’ll just edit your comment.)
5
On 6:57 p.m., 28 Feb 2007, benj wrote:
I loved Babel. Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barrazza were both excellent in this film. Rinko’s scene in the rave club was one of the best moments of film making for 2006.
If you liked Babel, you’ll love Innaritu’s other works. Most people agree that Babel is his weakest work yet.
6
On 7:09 p.m., 2 Mar 2007, seav wrote:
Ok, ok. I’ll go see Iñárritu’s other films.
benj, yeah, I thought that the rave scene was quite interesting as well. The only fault I can find in that scene was that even though she was deaf, she should definitely feel the pounding drumline (and the THX theater should’ve made the audience feel that too, hehehe). The scene’s visuals were outstanding, on the other hand.
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