Review: Babel

I finally got around to watching Babel last night. This is a great story about connections across cultures and countries--how one incident can involve an entire world. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu does an excellent job assembling Guillermo Arriaga's screenplay.

Babel happens in flashes--the story is cut up into pieces for the audience to place together. It's not all in chronological order. Each section is in order, but they are not altogether in order. It may cause some confusion, mostly toward the end, as to when the events occur. Overall, the story takes place in a matter of a few days (although there is no definite time frame). The catalyst for Babel involves people in Morocco, the U.S., Mexico, and Japan. Each character either plays a part in the incident or has a relation, in some minor way, to it. The mixture of languages really has little significance to the story as it only depicts the scenes and cultures.

The acting is quite good--which shows just how good the writing for the film was. Brad Pitt does an excellent job playing the part of an American tourist in Morocco (I was surprised by how old they made him appear on screen). The two young Moroccan brothers are also wonderful characters--they show the complexities of their family and situation.