Babel

WHAT A MASSIVE WASTE OF TIME!

Need I say more? Well ok then - it's a bit of a poo post if I don't, so I will...


...The film has four distinct segments, each taking place with different people.
1) Morocco - The Moroccan family, who live in the desert and farm goats.
2) Morocco - Brad and Kate who are for some reason on Holiday sans Children, and are on a tour bus.
3) USA/ Mexico - The Mexican Nanny, looking after Brad and Kate's kids.
4) Japan - The Japanese girl who's father gave a gun to a Moroccan man.

Ok. The first three all link quite nicely. The Japan thread is a bit out there, but I'll get to that bit later.

The Moroccan children are given a rifle by their father, who buys it from someone in exchange for a goat and some money. The boys shoot at a tour bus, (after a pointless and random wanking scene,) the bullet hits Kate Blanchett, Brad has a panic, and the bus is diverted to a nearby village with a doctor. Lovely.

Kate is quietly dying on the floor of a house, and Brad tries to get the US embassy to arrange for an ambulance. Meanwhile, the Mexican nanny looking after his kids is going to miss her son's wedding, so she and her nephew take them over the Mexican border to the wedding. The wedding finishes, the nephew is drunk, it's very early in the morning, and they are stopped at the US border because they don't have the right papers. But when they get pulled over, the nephew powers through the fence, creating a high speed chase. Having driven into the desert some way, he gets his Aunt and the American children out of the car, and leaves them, saying he'll come back. He doesn't. The Nanny leaves the children in the baking sun, flags down a border patrol car, is arrested, the kids are eventually found, and the nanny is deported.

Meanwhile, Kate wees herself, and then is flown out by helicopter, the tour bus having abandoned them. Turns out the Japanese girl's father gave the gun as a gift to one of the Moroccans after a hunting trip. Except, we're treated to random Japanese girl nakedness, and trying to force herself on to people for quite some time, which was totally pointless and random, and didn't form any integral part of the film. Oh, and none of it was chronological - it jumped all over the place depending which character the film was following! Argh!

I was also of the opinion that Kate and Brad's acting was less than mediocre, and Brad just seemed to be playing himself, and even then wasn't very convincing. As Hev said "if it wins an Oscar I will be very angry"!

0.5 Stars - John