The Frame

Usually when I go into a film with low expectations, it allows the film to make a favorable impression on me, thus increasing my enjoyment and opinion. However, I pretty much expected to dislike Babel and I pretty much hated it. I respect Alejandro González Iñárritu for Amores Perros and 21 Grams, both of which I liked and both share an ensemble cast/multi-storied approach with Babel. I expected Babel to be a message picture (something I usually dislike), but really it isn’t so much the message–which has to do with the difficulty of cross-cultural and interpersonal communication–that bothered me as the utter sadism which seems to pervade the story. And I don’t mean there’s literal sadism in the story, but the writers and directors appear to have a nearly sadistic urge to put their characters through every single horrible situation they can think of and never let anything good happen to any of them. Especially in the Mexican border story, which just piled worst case scenarios on top of each other to an almost ridiculous degree. In addition, the Japanese storyline was hardly at all connected to the Mexican or Moroccan one (which were linked fairly well), except by an offhanded reference. I’m sorry, but that was just lazy. I’ll grant that Iñárritu has a great eye, and the cinematography is good. I’ll grant that Brad Pitt does a good job, though Cate Blanchett was underused, since her role largely called for her to lie still and nearly die of a gunshot wound. But this is one of the rare cases in which the style and technical skill of a film were not even close to rescuing it (for me) from its story, tone, and narrative issues. Fire your scenarist and screenwriter, Iñárritu, and do better next time.
Well Below Average