Babel

(coming soon....)

I wanted to like this movie because :

1. The movie was nominated for Best Picture in 2007 Oscar along with other nomination in Best Director, Best Orginal Screeplay, Best Supporting Actress (2) and Best Original Musics Score.

2. The director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu previous works includes 21 Grams and Amores Perros impressed me.

3. Again, the director is one of the 3 Mexican musketeers who storms the international cinema, the others being Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro.

4. My fave actors, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal.

BUT..........

Not to say that I am disappointed but maybe due to the timing itself, where we have been fed with so many same-theme (or almost the same) movies such as Crash, Syriana and The Constant Gardener So, it came less appealing to me in some way. Having said that, the film intersects nicely with 3 main plot closely and beautifully knitted. Having Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt as one of the main plot in Morocco maybe attributed to star power factor but it's rare to see Pitt in some "not-the-main" roles. Both are brilliant. All the actors were giving punching performances. Rinko Kikuchi, Adriana Barazza deserved the Oscar nomintation they got. Again, Gael Garcia Bernal is always likable. The Moroccan family (father and 2 sons) especially the younger son, Yasser is so good. And the two children under Barazza's care are a joy to watch as well (one of them is the sister of the super child actor, Dakota Fanning, they really look-alike)

The name of the movie itself is a very good marketing strategy itself. I remember it created quite a buzz even before the Oscar season as lots of people are debating how to pronounce the word Babel. Well, even if it's a gimmick, it's a successful one. Babel itself is the name of the tower which human decided to build to reach God during a era when all the human being speaks the same language, in the Bible. Enraged by this disrespectful act, God decided to punish human and separate them into different groups and speaks different language (I reserved the right to be wrong here as I haven't read this story before from the bible, so correct me if I am wrong. Having said that, I'm wondering why it's a disrespect and why punish in this manner?). So, the title blends well with all the 3 main story lines, which all deals with the communications between human; husband Pitt and wife Blanchett, Pitt and the remaining of the American tourists in the bus, the deaf girl with the whole non-deaf world around her, Adriana's illegal status in the freedom land of America etc.....

It entails how important is communication and the fact that small misunderstanding or miscommunications has great impact beyond our own imagination.

So, folks, COMMUNICATE!!!!