Award-worthy ‘Babel’ speaks volumes

If audiences found “21 Grams” too depressing and unrelentingly bleak, they won’t be rushing out to see “Babel.” Their loss. It’s one of the most complex, well-acted and thought-provoking films of the year, and, quite possibly, a best-picture nomination.

Both movies are from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who, if his persona is similar to either of his films, doesn’t see the world through rose-colored glasses. But we always have Disney to rely on for happy endings, so the dark forces that gather in Gonzalez Inarritu’s work is a welcome change and one that cinephiles who avoid clichés and pat answers appreciate.

Bursting through with the critically applauded “Amores Perros” six years ago, Gonzalez Inarritu’s direction on “21 Grams” led to two Oscar nominations for Benecio del Toro and Naomi Watts. And don’t be surprised to hear Brad Pitt’s name called this time for “Babel.” (With the tabloid machine always finding Pitt and Angelina Jolie great material for front-page fodder — Brad eats cereal! Brad reads book! Brad wipes his nose! — it’s easy to forget he’s quite a talented actor, with an Oscar nomination for “Twelve Monkeys.”) 

Using the brilliant script from screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, Gonzalez Inarritu takes three completely different storylines — each taking place in locales spread throughout the globe —  and, somehow, weaves them together so they’re all interconnected.

Pitt and Cate Blanchett are a married couple working out their issues while on vacation in Morocco; their children are at home with a Latino nanny who takes the kids to Mexico (unbeknownst to their parents) to attend her son’s wedding when she can’t find anyone else to watch them; and a deaf Japanese teenager (startling newcomer Rinko Kikuchi) is dealing with, not only her handicap and burgeoning sexuality, but the traumatization of watching her mother commit suicide.

Without giving anything away, Blanchett suffers a serious health crisis and Pitt — in a foreign land, with little English spoken and few medical resources available — finds that he’s caught in a political quagmire, red tape getting in the way of her recovery.

Gonzalez Inarritu’s overriding theme is that, despite the thousands of miles from one character to another, it’s a small world out there, and issues that seem so large in scope and far-reaching can, in an instant, be felt in a humanistic fashion. Suddenly, the personal and the political are in conflict.

Terrorism, illegal immigration, prejudice have become more than news segments on CNN, and characters in Gonzalez Inarritu’s world are forced to alter their lives, depending on the often misguided federal policies of both the United States and Third World nations.

Children play an integral part in “Babel,” and their actions have grand consequences. When a goat farmer gives his boys a rifle to scare jackals, the kids use it in extremely unwise ways, setting off a terrible chain of events. And the kids scurried off to Mexico against their will create dire ramifications for their nanny.

But Gonzalez Inarritu’s great accomplishment here is not painting ethnicities in broad strokes — the dirt-poor people of Morocco are far from anti-American, but kind and helpful, wanting nothing to do with terrorism.

The title may throw some moviegoers off-guard, but it’s really quite profound. According to Webster’s, “babel” is a confusion of voices or sounds. There are many different languages spoken here, lots of translation needed from one character to another.

What unites them is a unifying voice, however. One which speaks universal truths in understanding the harsh realism of humanity.

Stuart Levine is a senior editor at Variety. You can reach him at .

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