Babel (15.)
Directed by Alejandro Gonzallez Inarritu.
Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi.143 mins
For their third collaboration, the Mexican Glee Club pairing of director Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros,) have some proper Hollywood backing, some proper Hollywood stars and have been told to go away and come back with some proper Art. They’ve done Mexico (Amores Perros), they’ve done America (21 Grams), this time they’re tackling the whole damn world – four interlocking stories, four different countries, three continents and a mixture of big stars and amateur performers.
Babel traces the consequences a single gunshot across the world. The bullet strikes Blanchett as she’s sitting on a tourist coach in Morocco alongside her husband Brad Pitt and the reverberations are felt by a Moroccan shepherding family, a Mexican nanny working illegally in LA and a deaf Japanese school girl.
I imagine the Japanese section, which has only a tentative link to the rest of the action, will be seized on as the weakest element. The story of how Chieko (Kikuchi) is estranged from her father and unable to connect with boys does spell out a little too clearly the theme of DIFFICULTIES WITH COMMUNICATION. But I always welcomed their reappearance as I felt a certain weight of despair lifted whenever they were on screen. Plus there is some arty, but wholly gratuitous, nudity in this section.
Back on the bus, Pitt is very good playing a fundamentally unsympathetic character put into a horrific situation. He lets you see both sides, doesn’t just turn him into an Ugly American. Blanchett’s role mostly consists of going “ugh, ugh, it hurts.”
I’d hoped that Babel might be the film where people began to see through Inarritu and Arriaga’s brand of arid portentous melodrama but the eager rubes at the Golden Globes have frittered away seven nominations in their directions.
I’ll willing concede that they state the obvious with considerable film making flair and at least Babel is less all encompassing bleak than their previous film, 21 Grams. Even allowing for the presence of Sean Penn, an actor who can turn any carnival into a wake, that film felt like punishment for a crime I didn’t know had been committed. Babel skips along hopefully for around an hour but in the second half Inarritu and Arriga start passing down their judgements and, with a few lucky exceptions, they are severe.
Review of Biutiful
Directed by Alejandro Gonzallez Inarritu.
Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi.143 mins
For their third collaboration, the Mexican Glee Club pairing of director Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros,) have some proper Hollywood backing, some proper Hollywood stars and have been told to go away and come back with some proper Art. They’ve done Mexico (Amores Perros), they’ve done America (21 Grams), this time they’re tackling the whole damn world – four interlocking stories, four different countries, three continents and a mixture of big stars and amateur performers.
Babel traces the consequences a single gunshot across the world. The bullet strikes Blanchett as she’s sitting on a tourist coach in Morocco alongside her husband Brad Pitt and the reverberations are felt by a Moroccan shepherding family, a Mexican nanny working illegally in LA and a deaf Japanese school girl.
I imagine the Japanese section, which has only a tentative link to the rest of the action, will be seized on as the weakest element. The story of how Chieko (Kikuchi) is estranged from her father and unable to connect with boys does spell out a little too clearly the theme of DIFFICULTIES WITH COMMUNICATION. But I always welcomed their reappearance as I felt a certain weight of despair lifted whenever they were on screen. Plus there is some arty, but wholly gratuitous, nudity in this section.
Back on the bus, Pitt is very good playing a fundamentally unsympathetic character put into a horrific situation. He lets you see both sides, doesn’t just turn him into an Ugly American. Blanchett’s role mostly consists of going “ugh, ugh, it hurts.”
I’d hoped that Babel might be the film where people began to see through Inarritu and Arriaga’s brand of arid portentous melodrama but the eager rubes at the Golden Globes have frittered away seven nominations in their directions.
I’ll willing concede that they state the obvious with considerable film making flair and at least Babel is less all encompassing bleak than their previous film, 21 Grams. Even allowing for the presence of Sean Penn, an actor who can turn any carnival into a wake, that film felt like punishment for a crime I didn’t know had been committed. Babel skips along hopefully for around an hour but in the second half Inarritu and Arriga start passing down their judgements and, with a few lucky exceptions, they are severe.
Review of Biutiful
