Babel (2006)
This is four "connected" stories: 1) a Moroccan family, 2) American tourists in Morocco, 3) undocumented housekeeper & her charges in California/Mexico, and 4) deaf teen in Japan.
I hated #1 -- brothers trying out the range of their new family rifle (bought to shoot threats to their herd) accidentally hit an American woman aboard a tour bus. There was an unnecessary subplot of incestual desire that was completely annoying and the shootout at the end was seriously over-the-top.
I also though #2 was ridiculous -- privileged couple coping with loss of a child take a trip through....Morocco? Really? Whose weird idea was that? Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt are fine as the couple, but I didn't care. She's shot, they deal with it as best they can while their fellow tourists are concerned with their own safety (like most people would be, silly to pretend that's somehow selfish).
But the first two pale in comparison to the stupidity of #3. Housekeeper gets stuck with two whiter-than-snow children of the Moroccan tourists when she's supposed to be OFF for a couple of days to attend her son's wedding in Mexico -- so, she packs up the kids and takes 'em with her. On the way back in, they encounter trouble at the border so her drunken nephew (their driver) makes a run for it and dumps the three passengers in the desert. She later decides to leave the two kids behind to find help...and, well, ugh. What made me incredibly disgusted with this storyline was the unbelievability that both Brad Pitt and his children would treat this woman as disposable rather than the treasured part of the family she should be at this point.
And then there's #4. Angry teen makes overt sexual advances to every male she meets -- removing her panties in order to flash some hotties in a restaurant, licking the mouth of her dentist as he leans over her, stripping bare before approaching the detective in her living room -- you get the picture. Good acting in this segment and pretty believable character study, but it's just not a story in which I'm interested, nor is the "connection" of this and the other three strong enough to warrant inclusion.
I think this is a failure on almost every level. It's disjointed, generally unbelievable, and almost always offputting. Felt like an eternity, too.
D+
I hated #1 -- brothers trying out the range of their new family rifle (bought to shoot threats to their herd) accidentally hit an American woman aboard a tour bus. There was an unnecessary subplot of incestual desire that was completely annoying and the shootout at the end was seriously over-the-top.
I also though #2 was ridiculous -- privileged couple coping with loss of a child take a trip through....Morocco? Really? Whose weird idea was that? Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt are fine as the couple, but I didn't care. She's shot, they deal with it as best they can while their fellow tourists are concerned with their own safety (like most people would be, silly to pretend that's somehow selfish).
But the first two pale in comparison to the stupidity of #3. Housekeeper gets stuck with two whiter-than-snow children of the Moroccan tourists when she's supposed to be OFF for a couple of days to attend her son's wedding in Mexico -- so, she packs up the kids and takes 'em with her. On the way back in, they encounter trouble at the border so her drunken nephew (their driver) makes a run for it and dumps the three passengers in the desert. She later decides to leave the two kids behind to find help...and, well, ugh. What made me incredibly disgusted with this storyline was the unbelievability that both Brad Pitt and his children would treat this woman as disposable rather than the treasured part of the family she should be at this point.
And then there's #4. Angry teen makes overt sexual advances to every male she meets -- removing her panties in order to flash some hotties in a restaurant, licking the mouth of her dentist as he leans over her, stripping bare before approaching the detective in her living room -- you get the picture. Good acting in this segment and pretty believable character study, but it's just not a story in which I'm interested, nor is the "connection" of this and the other three strong enough to warrant inclusion.
I think this is a failure on almost every level. It's disjointed, generally unbelievable, and almost always offputting. Felt like an eternity, too.
D+
Labels: 2006, Dplus, Drama, Oscar Winner
posted by MeMe | 1:51 PM
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