Sunday, November 27, 2011

Movie Review: Babel

Babel is a rivetting drama about how our lives are intertwined - how one event caused by the "careless" actions of two Moroccan boys leads to a serious of events spanning 4 continents, sparking a major diplomatic row, and shaking the world.

 Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) are an American couple on a vacation to Morocco, after the death of one of their children. Their other two children are in the care of  their Mexican help Amelia (Adriana Barraza). Unable to find someone who can watch the kids, Amelia takes the children with her to her son's marriage across the border. Meanwhile, in Morocco, two kids are playing with a powerful rifle that's been sold to their father. When they take practice shots at an approaching bus far away in the distance, the bullet hits Susan and lodges in her neck, severely injuring her. The incident quickly snowballs into a major international issue, with the US calling it a terror attack on its citizens. In Japan, a teenage deaf and dumb Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) tries to win friends and influence people by pulling off her underwear - trying to come to terms with her mother's suicide. What's the connection? The rifle used in the shooting - it used to belong to her dad, before he gifted it away in Morocco. While Richard desperately tries to save Susan's life in a small Moroccan village, he realises his real enemies are his own countrymen on the bus. Back in America, Amelia is struggling for survival in the desert with the kids, having been abandoned there by her nephew after a serious struggle with border control.

Fear, uncertainity, a sense of being completely lost. Different reasons, different places. All intertwined in some way or the other.

Serious movie, but a tad too long. And the Japanese angle spoils an otherwise extremely rivetting drama.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Siddhesh, how about reading a good book and posting its review? :)I could do with a few suggestions...

Siddhesh said...

:)

I read a lot too, had started writing a few reviews earlier too...

But some immediate suggestions for you: Shantaram. Maximum City. Life of Pi. Robert Ludlum's Bourne Series (read the ones he wrote, not the ones written by Eric Lustbader using his character!)

Anonymous said...

I see that your list has not been updated with any new names :P But thanks anyway :)

Siddhesh said...

:)

My list has updated, but I haven't got an assurance from YOU that you have read these books. Only after that, you go to the next list.

Siddhesh said...

Do check Bill Bryson's travel series - some amazing reading there!

Anonymous said...

Ok baba...Chill..I was just pulling your leg..You have been watching way too many movies! Setting a bad example for Sanam :P