In BABEL, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world.  Tied by circumstance but separated by continent, culture and language, each character discovers that it is family that ultimately provides solace.

In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out – detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple’s frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a deaf Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief.

In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost – lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves -- as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love. 

For one to truly do justice in a review of PARAMOUNT VANTAGES newest film BABEL, one would really need to expose key plot elements and scenes to explain their opinion. There for to avoid any such proceedings the basis of BABEL is cause and effect.  Yes, since the beginning of time (be it creation or explosion followed by millions of years of random but seemingly sequential events) every action has caused reactions that in turn has caused other "action/reaction"'s to infinite dimensions and parallels.  This is in a sense what we call life. 

So in this sense ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU's BABEL is a film about this ideal but also a study of such causality structures that do at least shape the boundaries of this life if not provide it lock, stock and mold.  BABEL opens in MOROCCO where we are met by HASSAN who wishes to sell his rifle to a goat herding family living within the hills of the Moroccan desert as the family needs to protect their herd from jackals.   The two men bargain between one another and a deal is struck, and as the two men head back to town the father tells his two young sons to test the rifle.  The boys out doing as their father had asked they misjudge the rifles reach and while harmlessly (and moronically as any kid) pointing at a bus coming down the road they shoot a tourist who is resting within its confines.

From their BABEL becomes the multi-storied interwoven tapestry that anyone familiar with the aforementioned INARRITU films has come to cherish.  As we are berated with the emotional and physical struggles of characters that span the globe, from MOROCCO to SAN DIEGO to JAPAN to MEXICO.  BABEL explores the fabric of four stories and how they are unto their own and as well akin.  One a story of a Moroccan families realities living in Morocco and their action/reaction's to these realities. Another that of CHIEKO (RINKO KIKUCHI) in Japan who after the death of her mother has found it hard to bond with her once never around father as well as to deal with her own normal "coming of age/ wanting a boyfriend but being outcast because she is different" issues. Yet another of an illegal immigrant nanny in San Diego who must choose between seeing her sons wedding in Mexico or properly taking care of the children in which she is entrusted.  Lastly that of a struggling husband and wife (BRAD PITT and CATE BLANCHETT) who on sabbatical from their kids trying to save their marriage end up struggling to save one of their own lives.

OK, if you have read any of my past review I go into WAY more depth about those films, and for those films that was OK.  BABEL is different.  BABEL in a sense deserves its own category in film as "fictional reality".  Yes the movie and it's stories are fanciful, but I'll be damned if anyone could say that the way in which these characters react to each event isn't about as "real" as one could come by.  So in that sense BABEL isn't a film in which someone can write about it and do any justice to it be it negative or positive.  This film is a film that for anyone to even speak of they must experience it, as that is what this film truly is an experience.

M@'s REMARK:
Not for the weak, timid, or anyone that lacks genuine human emotions, A MUST SEE FOR EVERYONE ELSE!!!!