A shot rings out in the arid mountains of Morocco and the bullet rips into the lives of the shooter, his family, his victim, her family, a Mexican nanny in San Diego and a deaf teenager and her widowed father in Tokyo.
Oh, and it triggers an international crisis.
Welcome to "Babel" and the riveting, roundabout world of Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and his brilliant screenwriting countryman, Guillermo Arriaga.
Following their collaborations on "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams" -- both of which told overlapping, time-scrambled stories of people connected by a single event -- "Babel" completes what they might call their Trilogy of Chance.
The focus of "Babel," as the title implies, is the communication trouble between people speaking different languages -- and six languages are spoken here. Like the first two films, the triggering incident involves a vehicle, this one a tour bus winding its way through the dusty roads of Morocco.
ADVERTISEMENT
Among the tourists inside are Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett), a San Diego couple who have taken a holiday to shore up their strained marriage.
The bullet that changes the subject -- fired by a young Berber shepherd boy testing the range of his father's new high-powered rifle -- tears through Susan's left shoulder. While the boy and his older brother scramble into the hills, frightened, Richard frantically tries to find help for his wife.
Back in San Diego, their children's stranded nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), decides to take the kids with her and her irresponsible nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal) to her son's wedding south of the border. It's a bad decision, and what follows is as harrowing for the children as what's happening to their parents in Morocco.
The third of the "Babel" stories takes us to Tokyo, into the lives of a deaf teenage girl (Rinko Kikuchi) and her widowed father (Koji Yakusho), the original owner of the rifle, which U.S. and Moroccan officials think may have been used in an act of terrorism.
This section is not about the fallout of the shooting, but of the earlier suicide of the businessman's wife and his relationship with his troubled and doubly silent daughter. While this is the most intimate of the film's three parts, it doesn't so much intertwine with the others as distract us from them.
"Babel" is nonetheless a powerful movie that should win all the year's ensemble acting awards. Pitt has never done better dramatic work, Blanchett is as convincing as always, and -- in introducing themselves to American audiences -- veteran Mexican actress Barraza and Japan's Kikuchi are revelations.
But the greatest marvel of "Babel" may be the performances Gonzalez Inarritu got from Elle Fanning (younger sister of Dakota Fanning) and Nathan Gamble. You will never see more authentic looks of fear in the faces and body language of small children than when Debbie and Mike are lost in the desert with their panic-stricken nanny.
That is, you hope you will never see such fear.
ADVERTISEMENT
'BABEL'
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett.
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes
Rated R: Violence, graphic nudity, sexual content, language and drug use. In English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Berber and Arabic, with subtitles.
Rating: ***
