Review of Babel (2008) by Mirella H — 27 Sep 2010

This is one of those films where several different stories are weaved together, and fortunately, it?s one of those films that does it well. Four stories: a couple vacationing in Morocco deal with tragedy, a maid battles between responsibility and personal needs, young boys make a mistake and are too afraid to come clean, and a deaf-mute in Japan deals with peer pressure and the death of her mother. These are the most bare summaries I can give, because I don?t want to give too much away, but I promise this is a really interesting movie. It?s very good. Definitely worth your time.

Because of the four different stories, there?s a lot going on and there aren?t really any boring points. I remember being interested the whole time, and I really liked it.

The first time I watched the movie, I didn?t put subtitles on. I thought they would come on automatically, and since they didn?t, I thought it was a brave move by the filmmakers, an attempt to make the viewers interpret the plot according to facial expressions, body language, and intensity of vocalization?abstract, film student things like that. Hah. I was wrong. You need subtitles. It?s definitely better with them. :P.

This film is very visually pleasing. The cinematographer did a really great job. Pretty much every scene is beautiful, and every landscape shot is gorgeous. The dialogue is very good. It helps the story, it helps the viewer?s understanding of the character, and it?s well written. The acting is good. There was no one I really had a problem with, no one really destroyed the illusion, so that was great for sure.

It?s a very good movie and I like it a lot, but for some reason, I didn?t love it immediately. Maybe I need to watch it a couple more times or something, ponder it further, I don?t know. There?s something keeping me from loving it and wanting to buy it as soon as I can. Nonetheless, I recommend it. It?s a good film.