Babel

***

This movie annoyed me. To me it served no purpose. I had such high hopes for it too.

Even though it set out on such a large scale, spanning across three continents telling stories that is deeply involved in international policy and diplomacy, the actual outcomes are quite trifling. It left me feeling empty. I feel like everything it is trying to say has been said before and in less suffocating ways.

As a film I can't really fault it. The acting was superb across the board, well constructed story arcs. the jilted time-line was unnecessary but easy enough to follow. nice photography, nice direction, everything was...nice...

But it shits me. So many things that didn't have to happen happened just to heap on the catastrophes for a more harrowing experience. All through the film the poor American tourists were put through so much suffering, they were elevated to the level of affliction of the Moroccans. But in the end, they went home more or less intact while the shit storm was still going on around them and everywhere else. and Santiago, jesus, don't we even get to know what happens to him? The Japanese story was tacked on without too much thought. I mean sure, it's connected somehow, in a very little way, but the segway was largely inconsequential and quite frankly, dispersed the narrative into a trivial personal problem.

I mean, make up your mind. If you're going to film a narrative driven movie, then make the cause/effect actually mean something. If you want to reflect the randomness of it all then stop using the narrative to manipulate your audience. Three stars is really me being generous, purely on the basis of my love for Cate (who had a total of three scenes) and Gael Garcia Bernal (who had even less, and then disappeared)

It made me sad, and world hating. But hey, don't take my word for it. The boy liked it a lot, and said I was being too cynical.