Last Friday I saw Babel, the new movie from the 21 Grams/Amores Perros writer-director team Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro Garcia Innaritu (not going to attempt the special characters). While it was not the best movie ever, it was certainly riveting (if long). I was totally emotionally drained afterwards. The plot you probably know the most about (Cate Blanchett, wife of Brad Pitt, gets accidentally shot while on a tour bus in Morocco) was actually the least painful. The
worst part was watching Amelia (Adriana Barraza), the housekeeper/nanny for Cate and Brad's angelic blond children, do her best to care for them while the U.S. government treats her as a second class (non-) citizen. The actress did a really wonderful job and my heart went out to the character. The second plot that really captured me was the series of vignettes about a deaf-mute Japanese girl named Chieko. There is a scene where she walks into a nightclub and the beginning of Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" is pulsing. It wasn't until the sound cut out that I realized, wait, she can't
hear this. It was a strange way to shake up my hearing-centric perception, and obviously it was only part of the whole language-tower-of-Babel theme of the movie. Another reason to see the movie.
(Oh yeah, and for you to have the same "wtf" moment in the opening scenes: "Wait, Brad Pitt has bags under his eyes and gray hair. When did that happen?" Brad did a pretty good job - I generally think he is kind of boring, but, and maybe it's Angelina's influence, this was a different role for him and he performed it well. It wasn't Oscar deserving or anything, but it was good.)
Last Friday I saw Babel, the new movie from the 21 Grams/Amores Perros writer-director team Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro Garcia Innaritu (not going to attempt the special characters). While it was not the best movie ever, it was certainly riveting (if long). I was totally emotionally drained afterwards. The plot you probably know the most about (Cate Blanchett, wife of Brad Pitt, gets accidentally shot while on a tour bus in Morocco) was actually the least painful. The worst part was watching Amelia (Adriana Barraza), the housekeeper/nanny for Cate and Brad's angelic blond children, do her best to care for them while the U.S. government treats her as a second class (non-) citizen. The actress did a really wonderful job and my heart went out to the character. The second plot that really captured me was the series of vignettes about a deaf-mute Japanese girl named Chieko. There is a scene where she walks into a nightclub and the beginning of Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" is pulsing. It wasn't until the sound cut out that I realized, wait, she can't hear this. It was a strange way to shake up my hearing-centric perception, and obviously it was only part of the whole language-tower-of-Babel theme of the movie. Another reason to see the movie.
(Oh yeah, and for you to have the same "wtf" moment in the opening scenes: "Wait, Brad Pitt has bags under his eyes and gray hair. When did that happen?" Brad did a pretty good job - I generally think he is kind of boring, but, and maybe it's Angelina's influence, this was a different role for him and he performed it well. It wasn't Oscar deserving or anything, but it was good.)
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