Ever watch a foreign movie? If so, then you’ll know what to expect when watching Babel, the newest Brad Pitt vehicle to hit theatres, already generating some buzz as an awards contender. And for good reason – director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams) has once again put together a compelling story that weaves through four distinct narratives of people separated by continents but inevitably connected by one thing: a gun.

In Babel, we get a glimpse into a day of a married American couple touring through Morocco, their children and the Mexican nanny they are left behind with in San Diego, a deaf-mute teenager in Japan, and a poor family living in the Moroccan mountains. Needless to say, much of the viewers’ understanding of the movie comes from subtitles. Despite this hindrance, Babel’s theme of misunderstanding, carelessness, and alienation still comes across strongly

Babel opens with the purchase of a gun by a mountain family in Morocco. The gun is given to the family’s two young sons, who are put in charge of killing the stray jackals that prey on the family’s goats. But they don’t manage to shoot any jackals before the gun claims its first victim – American Susan Jones (Cate Blanchett) who is shot in the shoulder while traveling in a tour bus with her husband Richard (Brad Pitt). Immediately, the United States cries of terrorism.

This is not the only instance where Babel targets the discrimination and hypersensitivity that plagues the U.S. Back home in San Diego, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), the Jones’ nanny, is an illegal worker from Mexico who is arrested when she attempts to return with the Jones’ two blond, blue-eyed kids in tow from her son’s wedding south of the border. Because of the accident in Morocco, she had no choice but to take them with her. She’s raised the two children like they were her own since they were born, but that means nothing to border patrol. As a Mexican, Amelia doesn’t have a voice in America.

In the bright, vivid lights and colours of a lively Japanese city, worlds away from the parched browns of Mexico and Morocco, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a deaf-mute teenager, doesn’t have a voice either – but quite literally so. Having recently dealt with the tragic death of her mother, Chieko is struggling even harder to fit into a society where she is an outcast. While the tie that inevitably binds her with Amelia and the family that employs the nanny is weak, Chieko’s story is the most provocative of the film. Without saying a word, Kikuchi outshines even Babel’s top-billed superstars in a gripping performance that, however uncomfortable, ultimately makes you think.

But that uneasiness may be the one major downfall of Babel. Very rarely does the film allow viewers to relax, and what Babel has to say may be difficult to swallow at times. Confusion may also make holding viewers’ attentions a test, as the continuity between the four narratives can be blurry at times, and Babel may come across to be trying too hard to be this year’s Crash.






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