Interlocking Chaos

Balal (Hebrew): to confuse or confound. Closely associated to this word.



Everyone knows the Tower Of Babel story, right? Post-deluge, the people of the city of Babel attempted to erect the Tower Of Babel to reach to heaven, which angered G-d, so, poof, he made each person speak a different language, effectively stopping the project cold. I suppose some elements of that biblical story are alive and well in this film, particularly considering its odd collection of locations: Morocco, Mexico and Japan.

With a cast including Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal, you would expect them to be the anchors of the film. They are good but they all pale in comparison to the Moroccan Father, Mexican Nanny, and IMHO, the total show-stealer, the deaf-mute Japanese Student. The girl playing the deaf-mute, Rinko Kikuchi, never says a word but her performance will lodge itself somewhere in the back of your throat and stay there for 2 1/2 hours, she's amazing!

Babel seems to play on a dichotomy; it uses initially disjoint but ultimately interlocking stories in each country to show how we are all fundamentally connected through the human experience yet fatally segmented by its language and interpretation.


Babel
9.0/10