Babel

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

D-Dad and I saw this tonight, because of the Academy Award nominations.

The Academy must have been on drugs. This was pretentious, self-important, poorly filmed, and nonsensical. The interlocking stories didn't interlock nearly as well as other films (such as Crash), and the characters were not compelling.

Here's an illustration. Much of the action revolves around Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette. Brad and Cate had a baby who died of SIDS, so they go off to Morocco to recover, leaving behind their other two children (who, presumably, are in mourning themselves and could use their parents around) with the illegal immigrant nanny.

The logic of this movie degenerates from there.

[Guest sharpie]

I missed the SIDS baby part. I thought he had left her and then returned and thats why they were fighting.

I liked the movie, especially the parts in Mexico (all the stuff with the nanny, really). The Japanese part was also good but hard to figure where it connected to the other two parts.

Not good for the Moroccan travel bureau.

[A Boy Named Seo]

I thought this movie was a warm pile of poo.

[Guest Rotblatt]

I had incredibly low expectations for this film, so wound up pleasantly surprised.

Totally agree with Scarlet on the nonsensical plot, but I thought the acting (apart from the scenery-chewing Pitt & Winslet) was pretty solid, and I actually found cinematography lovely. And really, the concept--showing the rippling effect our every action causes--was pretty good. It just wasn't particularly well executed.

6 stars.