There are four vignettes here - two in Morocco, one in Southern California and Mexico, and one in Japan. It's the path of a rifle that loosely binds the tales together. [Some of it's a stretch, frankly.] I enjoyed three of the plotlines, especially the Japanese stuff. Rinko Kikuchi is spectacular as a deaf mute teenager, and it's a treat to see Kôji Yakusho. [Who can forget him in Shall We Dance?] Director Alejandro González Iñárritu does his best work in those scenes I think. As spectacular as the Moroccan mountainside scenes are, the passages from Kikuchi's viewpoint are fabulous...as are his sequences that get to the heart of the unrelenting crush of Tokyo life.

Like Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga's partnership in 21 Grams, Babel is anything but linear in its telling. Tony Gilroy does the same thing in Michael Clayton (Widescreen Edition) and Duplicity, but he gives you little cues ("2 weeks earlier"...that type of thing). González Iñárritu and Arriaga don't do that. Until you catch on it can be confusing. The viewer needs to piece the sequence together. After you get it, it's neat to watch it all fall together.

The one part of the film I soured on: any time Brad Pitt appeared on screen. I'm not anti-Brad Pitt. I've enjoyed him in many things. But here, he's visibly straining To Be Meaningful in an Important Movie. It's off-putting. Whenever Iñárritu went back to him, I twiddled my thumbs, looked elsewhere...and waited for the focus to shift back to characters for whom I cared.

This is one of the lesser quality movies I've seen recently. Not because of its content, or performance by its cast, but rather the way the story was told and contrived efforts to "educate". The world we live in is indeed complex, and inter-connected in mysterious ways. But that does not mean a movie is supposed to mirror that and worse, further complicating by randomly jumping around event time and locations. What purpose does it serve?? What did the director/screen writer try to accomplish? I would be rather surprised if half of the audience did not quit the movie a third way into it at the theater. The complicated background life of the girl in Japan... was it really necessary? how much does it contribute to the main thread of the story? Problems amongst the youth? Then why the Mexico trip and such? It reminds me of young kids telling stories...often forgot something and go back and forth, and digress to whateverland interests them at the moment. Maybe that's how masterpieces were made these days!

Imagine a school kid doing a composition: the story/answer was simple. you can finish the whole thing in 200 words. but the assignment calls for 2000 words. what do you do? babbling. Yup. That just about summarized it.

The feeling is of being trapped in a nightmare-everything that can go wrong will go wrong(the marrocan kids will shoot someone, japanese girl will get in some trouble, something will go wrong with the kids in Mexico), you don't really grasp the whole story and you can't wake up.And when you wake up you ask yourself why?
Otherwise, too long, good performance of characters, some disturbing scenes, and the biggest problem is that the story doesn't catch you.

In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out--detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist coupleâ(tm)s frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. This movie is a compelling tale, one that delineates how small mistakes and lapses in judgment can have tragic consequences. An emotionally shattering drama.

This is trilogy of stories that slowly evolve into a common theme and connections. Languages, cultures, classes, and countries weave into a fabric of common connections.

A rifle is the center of the film. It becomes part of a local goat herdsman's property in Morocco. He has two young sons (Said Tarchani and Boubker Ait El Caid) who take care of the goats but also play with the rifle. During target practice with rocks one son inadvertently takes a shot at a tour bus. Both sons see the bus stop and realize something is wrong. They run back to their home and hide the gun as they realize what trouble they started.

Traveling in the tour bus in the back roads of Morocco are Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett). They are a wealthy young couple who have just lost a child. Their other two children are at home in San Diego with their illegal Mexican housekeeper and nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza). Susan has been irritable and upset most of the trip. After a meal she does not enjoy they get on the tour bus and start down the winding back roads of Morocco. Susan leans against the window and the gunshot comes through hitting her in the shoulder near the neck. Richard and the Tour Bus passengers panic and try to find hospital or help near by as Susan is bleeding and in much pain. Finally they find a small town nearby, but still need competent medical care.

Richard calls home to tell Amelia she needs to stay with the children longer than expected. Amelia is upset as she was planning on attending her son's wedding in Mexico. She makes a decision to go anyway and take Richard and Susan's children with her. They have great fun at the wedding and Amelia's son does not want her to leave Mexico. She says she has to return with the children - and her nephew drives them back. Immigration officials cause a problem and near disaster in the desert when trying to come back to the United States.

Then the film zips to Tokyo and a rich widower (Koji Yakusho) who is tied to the rifle that shot Susan. He worries and is torn about his deaf daughter (Kinko Kikuchi). She is angry she has no hearing and no mother. Her anger at a sports game upsets him. He seems to talk to her about her attitude (There are no subtitles). She is upset when boys back away from her when they realize she cannot hear. She wants to be loved and have a life of fun and boyfriends like other young girls. She is bold, promiscuous, determined and angry. Her actions are both shocking and sad.

This is a very intimate peek into each life. It is deeply, darkly emotional and yet very thoughtful on the love of families as well as cultural misunderstandings. We see humanities connectedness and how we all make mistakes whether rich or poor. Life is complicated as is this movie.


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