Babel

Like Amores Perros and 21 Grams, Babel is a multiple narrative movie by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, threading together three seemingly different tales to form one overarching narrative. Unlike the other films, Babel, while powerful and compelling, lives up to its title not by subject matter but by being confusing and a little uninteresting. The movie begins in Morocco, as a villager sells to his neighbor a rifle which would help him and his sons fend off the jackals from killing their flock. But his two sons are young, and although the youngest is clearly a natural and accurate marksman, neither have the maturity to handle the gun. Sure enough, while trying to see if the rifle can really shoot long distances, the youngest aims at a passing bus and fires. The bus stops, and the kids run away scared. A woman (Cate Blanchett) was hit in the bus, and her husband (Brad Pitt) becomes frantic, as they are stuck in the middle of nowhere and the closest hospital is hours away. A man on the bus says that they are close to his town, and they drive there, as a doctor lives in the town. It is a strange and scary town to the tourists, and many want to leave the couple behind. But the doctor comes and can only stop the bleeding, which is profuse. He sews her up without anasthetics. There is a phone in the town, and the husband contacts the American embassy for help. There is a delay, because of some diplomatic complications. The police are sent out as well to investigate, and they find the bullet casings. Up to this point, everyone thinks that it is a terrorist act, but the police, after interrogating the villager who sold the rifle, come to the buyer's house where the children confess their doings to their father. They flee as the police arrive, and confront them in a shootout, where the older brother is shot. The youngest brother smashes the gun, and surrenders. Meanwhile, the tour bus leaves, and eventually the husband and wife are rescued. Another story deals with a Mexican nanny taking care of two children in San Diego. She is stressed because she has to go down into Mexico for her son's wedding; the parents are out of town, and she can't get anyone to cover for her. So she decides to take the children with her; her nephew comes in to pick them up, and they cross the border to attend the wedding, which is large, loud and a little scary to the children, but festive and clean. Everything is fine, and they go back to the US in the middle of the night. They meet trouble at the border. The passports are fine, but the children are clearly not related to the nanny or the nephew, and she failed to provide a letter of permission. In a panic, the nephew crashes through the gate, and they drive off into the desert, police in pursuit. The nephew drops them off in the desert, and drives off to let the police chase him. But they are in the middle of nowhere, and when day comes, they have to seek the shade for comfort from the sun. The heat is intense, and the daughter faints. The nanny leaves them to find help, but runs into the police, who arrest her. They find the children, and bring them back to the city. The nanny will be deported, however, and she is brought back to the border, to the arms of her son who is waiting for her. The final story takes place in Japan, about a father and his deaf mute daughter, a teenager, who is leading a normal life, hanging out with friends and flirting with the boys. But there is something wrong -- she is too sexually provocative, flashing anonymous men by exposing herself in a club and trying to tongue her dentist while he is inspecting her teeth. There are also a couple of police inspectors who want to talk to her father, and she is worried, remembering when the police came to talk to her dad after her mom killed herself. After losing a potential boyfriend in a club to one of her girlfriends, she goes home, depressed, and calls the younger inspector, claiming to have information about her father that he would be interested in. He comes, and after an awkward interview, she takes off her clothes and offers herself to him. Shocked, he refuses, and she breaks down, sobbing. He leaves, but runs into the father, and asks him about a rifle that he had owned, and was discovered in the hands of a Moroccan man in a mystery shooting. As it turns out, he was in Morocco, on a hunting tour, and he gave the man his gun as thanks. This ties to the first story, and as for the second, the children were the offspring of the husband and wife involved in the shooting.