Ralph's Movie Reviews: BABEL

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

BABEL

Drama
In French, Spanish, Japanese and Arabic with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Yussef and Ahmed, two young Moroccon brothers
Brad Pitt: Richard
Cate Blanchett: his wife Susan, both touring Morocco
Nathan Gamble: their son Mike
Elle Fanning: their daughter Debbie
Adriana Barraza: the children’s Mexican nanny Amelia
Gael García Bernal: her nephew Santiago
Rinko Kikuchi: Chieko, a deaf-mute teenager
Kôji Yakusho: her father Yasujiro

REVIEW
At first it’s a bit confusing with three separate stories not all on the same time line. But gradually the pieces start falling into place. Despite the length of the movie (it’s 2 hours and 22 minutes long) there is a lot going on and not much could be edited out.

Excellent acting throughout and the cinematography is top notch.

CLASSIFICATION

for violence, graphic nudity, some sexual content, language and brief drug use.

P.S.
Babel:
1. a city in Shinar where the building of a tower is held in Genesis to have been halted by the confusion of tongues
2a: a confusion of sounds or voices
2b: a scene of noise or confusion

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.