Review of Babel (2008) by Laura : — 02 May 2010

Ehhh. Well, this is the first Alejandro González Iñárritu that just didn't entirely work for me. For one thing, I am a bit tired now of the criss-crossing, dove-tailing, all-connecting story thing that, to be honest, was much more powerful in Amores Perros and 21 Grams, and for another, this time the writers pull some of their punches.

The conclusions to a couple of these stories were frankly weak and unsatisfying, whilst some of the decisions characters make are baffling. Why does Gael García Bernal's character behave the way he does when he clearly knows the ramifications of his actions? Maybe the nature of the film meant that because we could only spend so long with each set of characters we don't come to know them as much as we need to to understand their actions, but it's certainly not a weakness I found in Amores Perros.

On a technical level, there is much to admire here - there's a powerful music score, some stunning photography and typically kinetic direction and many of the performances (especially Rinko Kikuchi) are thrilling, but the plot simply did not grip me and so on that level I was left disappointed and unmoved.