Babel

At once poetic, provocative, and plaintive, BABEL explores different people's efforts to communicate with one another. They range from desperate to exhilarating, and some fail while others succeed. All are difficult. Like director Alejandro González Iñárritu's other movies, this one tackles difficult themes using a complex, contrived structure. Three basic storylines intersect at different times and through too-clever allusions. Powerfully linked by instances of violence, the stories all concern children who are caught up in circumstances beyond their easy comprehension. Two plots are connected by family members: Richard (Brad Pitt) and his wife Susan (Cate Blanchett) have traveled to Morocco in an effort to get over a traumatic event. They've left their children, Debbie (Elle Fanning) and Mike (Nathan Gamble), at home in San Diego, under the care of their housekeeper, Amelia (Adriana Barraza).Tragedy strikes in Morocco when Susan is shot in the neck. Richard works frantically to get help. At the same time, Amelia, not knowing why Richard and Susan are delayed, is worried she'll miss her son's wedding in Mexico. At last, she decides to take the children with her to Tijuana, an idea questioned even by her reckless nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal). He drives them to and from the wedding, but on their return they're stopped at the border, and Santiago's reaction leads to disaster. In the third story, deaf Tokyo high schooler Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), struggles with her mother's recent suicide and rebels against her father Yasujiro (Kôji Yakusho), who is nominally linked to Susan's shooting, but the thematic links -- between nations, individuals, and images -- are more potent here, especially as all concern kids and parents.