Babel

When Brad Pitt points a finger and threatens his fellow tourists that if they leave without him, ‘he’ll kill them’, what do they do? They leave anyway. And that’s what makes this movie different. For that matter, most of the movies out there. In the real world, no matter how charismatic one is; he just cannot manage to hold a bunch of tourists back and keep them waiting because his wife’s shot and there’s no ambulance. Very few understand the agonies of others. It happens only in Bollywood. A couple of inspiring words by our hero and the tourists suddenly metamorphose into super-assistive altruistic people. Is that probable? No. They’ll fuck the hero up if they think that’s what would actually happen. Welcome to Hollywood.

The movie starts with two small boys wandering out into the parched landscape of a small village in Morocco to herd their goats while trying to find ways to get the itch off their hands as they take their dad’s newly purchased rifle along with them. After shooting at a fox or two they begin to question the gun’s range and decide to put it at test by shooting at a tourist bus that they spot far away. They shoot, not expecting that someone in the bus would actually get hurt. That happens to be Pitt’s wife. This accident detonates a chain of events, all of which are interlinked. The story, if arranged chronologically, might come out as very normal and an ordinary one. The wife gets shot. Moroccan cops think it's a terrorist attack. Rifle had earlier belonged to a Japanese businessman who by the way has a very horny daughter. The nanny at Pitt’s house takes the kids along to Mexico at her nephew’s wedding (crossing the border illegally which brings trouble eventually), without telling Pitt of course, as she can’t find anybody else to take care of them and Pitt can’t return as wife’s hurt(remember?).

The main attraction is the direction though. The director is some dude with a really long name. He has done a good job by portraying the story in a pretty innovative manner. It can remind one of Memento. He keeps jumping around the post-accident lives of the four families that get involved viz. Pitt’s, Japanese-businessman’s, goat-people’s and the nanny’s. Lots have developed a dislike for the movie saying it gets confusing and that it’s pretty difficult to keep up with so many stories at once. But then, Yuva, which was a great movie, was disliked for the same reason, wasn’t it? There are a few dimwits out there who find it difficult to appreciate something different. And a few ADHD diagnosed patients too who can’t cope up with something that’s not a soap on Doordarshan.

The Japanese chick’s performance is something else that’s worth appreciating. I don’t know whether she’s deaf-mute for real or not but whichever of the two it is, she sure as hell has done a splendid job of acting like one. And the horniness. That’s an added feature. So horny that she tries to kiss the dentist and even goes naked in front of the dude from the police dept. That both of them have some moral ethics to believe in is a bummer though.

The soundtrack is great too. With the Arabian music striking the right notes at appropriate times, it brings out the Moroccan blues quite effectively. The end is perfect. What not! Pitt cries and that’s something one just cannot miss. I won’t disclose whether the end is a sad or a happy one(it’s an old movie, so you might already be knowing), but if you are someone who has a penchant for good movies, disappointment is quite improbable. No wonder it has bagged an Oscar and a couple of less-than-an-Oscar awards.

It's relatively old but does it matter? Torrent it and watch it. It can get a bit predictable but screw that. The performances are top-notch. Normal story in a not-so-normal way. Isn't all that enough?

Pros : Brilliant direction. Brilliant acting. And horniness well depicted.

Cons : Longer than necessary. And predictable to some extent. But Cons <<<<< Pros.

Rating : 3.5/5