Saturday, March 31, 2007
REACTION: Babel Review
Unlike Laura, I’ve never seen an Alejandro González Iñárritu film. I had nothing to compare it to and I really didn’t have any great expectations. After watching the film, I would’ve given Adriana Barraza the Best Supporting Actress award. Granted, I didn’t see Dreamgirls and maybe Jennifer Hudson was truly remarkable, but the mounting fear and desperation that she expressed personifying the plight of illegal immigrants was a much more resounding story of discrimination than Hudson’s. Besides the Mexican border story, I also enjoyed the tale of the two Moroccan brothers. Their coming of age story was pretty well done given that they had very little time to tell it. In it, a young boy learned to overcome his ego. But the true story—the one the director was trying to translate, literally—was an attempt to illuminate the plague of miscommunication that has infected the world. The images of people of different colors and cultures united by their common dilemma were supposed to ultimately show that we’re all the same. But by the end, I felt even more disassociated from everyone else in the world. The way the emotions and the purpose of the film stay with you long after the credits stop rolling is what made the film Oscar material. But I agree with Laura. Every film is open to individual interpretation. However, there’s always a chance that a negative message is interpreted and I don’t think Iñárritu intended for that to happen.
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Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! You ladies are all wrong. This movie was a huge let-down for me, lover of Amores Perros and all movies with interconnected narrative. The Japanese story is only tenuously connected to the other two. A gun. Whoo hooo. And the American couple (Blanchett and Pitt) are the flattest, most stereotypical representation of WASPS abroad that I've seen in a while (even though Blanchett managed to add a certain fierceness to her character at points). (By the way, Brad Pitt + Beard does not equal acting). I loved Garcia Bernal's character and the whole Mexico journey in general. I felt that it had the most emotion, and it was where I felt the director and screenwriter's passion and true concern for their characters most fervently. (Coming from two Mexican artists, however, that was no big surprise). Sorry Ini, better luck next time, and remember all the languages in the world can't mask a badly written screenplay.
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