Review of Babel (2006) by Zachary H — 04 Nov 2011

This movie is actually quite good. The performances are really real and the story is engaging and interesting. The problem that I just cannot fathom is why this movie won the academy award for best original score.

The soundtrack in this movie barges in at the wrong time with music that doesn't really fit at all. My favorite performance by far in this movie is Adriana Barraza as Amelia. Her performance is so gritty that it really makes the viewer feel bad for both her and her situation.

I think she was severely underused in the grand-scheme of the movie because the focus was apparently on Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Normally, that is not a problem, as these two actors give generally good performances.

The problem in Babel is that their portion of the story is by far the least interesting once they get passed the opening issue with them. The part of the story in Japan, Mexico, and the Moroccan family held my interest far better, and the performances were a little bit better in these places.

I really found Brad Pitt's character to be unsympathetic, and I found Cate Blanchett's character to be unwarrantedly annoying. Everyone else really deserved far more credit (especially considering the fact that the two boys in Morocco were just boys they found there that had no acting experience).

This eventually leads the viewer to get annoyed when they are showing the part of the story that they do not want to see. It is like a bad episode of a TV show you like. You watch every bad episode for the good ones that come up, and you need them to follow the story.

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are the bad episodes, and the other parts of the story are the good ones. Overall, the movie is still good, but it decided to focus on the wrong story, and the performances in that atory are surprisingly the weakest in the movie.

It is still a movie that everyone should see.