Babel

 

Babel 2006

• Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
• Seen by this director: 21 Grams
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam, Boubker Ait El Caid, Said Tarchani, Mustafa Rachidi, Adriana Barraza, Elle Fanning, Nathan Gamble, Gael Gárcia Benal, Rinko Kikuchi, Kôchi Yakusho, Harriet Walter, Michael Maloney
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Brad Pitt – World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Troy, confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Friends, The Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
• Cate Blanchett – The House with Clocks in Its Walls, Cinderella, The Hobbit etc, Hanna, Robin Hood, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Elizabeth, I’m Not There, Notes on a Scandal, Little Fish, The Aviator, The Shipping News, The Gift, The Man Who Cried
• Adriana Barraza – Cake
• Elle Fanning – Ginger & Rosa, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Taken, I Am Sam
• Nathan Gamble – The Hole, The Dark Knight, The Mist
• Rinko Kikuchi – Pacific Rim, Norwegian Wood
• Harriet Walter – Star Wars the Force Awakens, London Spy, Downton Abbey, Hollow Crown, From Time to Time, Young Victoria, Atonement, Bright Young Things, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Sense and Sensibility
• Michael Maloney – River, Utopia, Summer in February, Young Victoria, Bonekickers, Notes on a Scandal, Hamlet, Othello, In the Bleak Midwinter, Hamlet, Henry V
• Why? Good cast. Good film.
• Seen: Once before. Now 10 October 2020

             Four stories. Richard (Pitt) and Susan (Blanchett) are having marital troubles. On a coach outing through Morocco Susan is shot by accident by two young goatherders (El Caid and Tarchani) whose father (Rachidi) has just bought them a rifle to shoot hyenas.

       Emilia (Barraza), Richard and Susan’s housekeeper/nanny, can’t find anyone to take care of the children (Fanning and Gamble) so she takes them to her son’s wedding across the border in Mexico.

       In Japan, an emotionally disturbed deaf girl Chieko (Kikuchi) has lost her mother and feels neglected by her father (Yakusho).

       Such fragile and tragic threads tie these characters together around the globe. Such destructive consequences from such small seemingly harmless decisions. Such a powerful film.

 5* of 5