Common Sense Media Review
Diverse, globe-trotting film has explicit nudity, violence.
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Babel
What's the Story?
Like director Alejandro González Iñárritu's other movies, BABEL tackles difficult themes using a complex structure: Three main storylines intersect at different times, all concerning children who are caught up in circumstances beyond their comprehension. Richard (Brad Pitt) and his wife, Susan (Cate Blanchett), have traveled to Morocco in an effort to get over a traumatic event, leaving 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, and Richard works frantically to get help. At the same time, Amelia, not knowing why Richard and Susan are delayed, is worried that she'll miss her son's wedding in Mexico. At last, she decides to take the children with her to Tijuana, an idea questioned by her 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, Tokyo high schooler Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), who's deaf, struggles with her mother's recent death by suicide and rebels against her father, Yasujiro (Kôji Yakusho). All of the stories are nominally linked, but it's the thematic links -- between nations, individuals, and images -- that take center stage.
Is It Any Good?
At once poetic, provocative, and plaintive, this film explores people's efforts to communicate with one another. This difficult theme is made easier by Babel's veteran cast, with stalwarts like Blanchett, Pitt, Barraza, and Yakusho bringing gravitas, while younger stars Bernal and Kikuchi easily keep pace. The film's kids also deliver touching performances, with Moroccan son Yussef (Boubker Ait El Caid) standing out with his impish bravado. Uniting these far-flung characters are their respective traumas, as the film covers mature themes with a humanistic lens. By its end, Babel both gathers together and unravels its many strands, allowing that communication may be elusive and misleading but insisting that it's crucial for understanding and healing to take place.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Babel's central theme: communication. How can you communicate with someone if you don't understand their language? How can communication help solve problems?
Discuss the parent-child relationships in the film. How did problems arise between Abdullah and his sons and daughter? Why does Chieko rebel against her father and act out? What about Richard's reliance on Amelia to take care of his son and daughter? What mistakes are made, and how does each family unit change by the end of the film?
How do the movie's imagery and soundtrack evoke different experiences, such as being afraid, high, joyful, deaf, etc.? Do the techniques succeed? Why, or why not?
The film uses cultural stereotypes in order to question them. Do the filmmakers succeed with this route? Was there a different way to humanize characters from wide-ranging cultures without resorting to stereotypes?
Movie Details
- In theaters : October 27, 2006
- On DVD or streaming : February 20, 2007
- Cast : Brad Pitt , Cate Blanchett , Gael Garcia Bernal
- Director : Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
- Inclusion Information : Latino Movie Director(s) , Mexican Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Paramount Vantage
- Genre : Drama
- Run time : 141 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : violence, some graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use
- Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
- Last updated : September 29, 2024
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