Babel

DVD review from Nick at Nite

Babel

"Babel" - Latin for slow, tedious, and sometimes boring. I ignored the recommendation of a movie buff friend and made the mistake of watching Babel last night. Babel is an odd cross between a Robert Altman film, Memento, and Not Without My Children. Anyone who has seen the Sally Field masterpiece Not Without My Children sees the weak link in the thread. Babel is four separate stories that are interrelated in some fashion. Standing alone some of the stories are not interesting at all. Other parts of the stories are not developed in a sufficient way to make me care about what is happening to the characters. Basically, some sheepherders in Morocco accidentally shoot Brad Pitt's wife, Brad Pitt's kids go missing in the Mexican desert, a deaf Japanese girl has mommy issues and possibly bipolar disorder, and therr are no real terrorists in Morocco. These stories are all told on top of one another and in some cases out of order. I was really more focused by the end of the movie on just figuring out what happened and how it ended rather than just enjoying the show. Might have had more of an impact if more of the stories had ended in terrible, sad ways. I give it an "F" and wonder why it was nominated for an Oscar.