Babel

Alejandro González Iñárritu has reached the zenith of his mosaic-laden journey. I would like to say that he took the best from Amores Perros and 21 Grams and combined them together, but that is not the case. Still, Babel remains the director's best work. He managed to avoid a bit of the unfortunate confusion from his previous film, endowed all the storylines with emotional richness, and mixed everything in a way that I could barely catch my breath right from the first second, for over two hours. And it wouldn't be Iñárritu if there wasn't some message present in his film. Babel almost screams for humanity, solidarity, and help, which in some moments brings tears to the viewer's eyes, and in others simply pins them to their seats. (02/27/2007)

What I appreciate about Iñárritu is how he is able to sensitively tell the story of the hardships of an ordinary person. However, it’s also the same plot concept for the third time, which is unfortunate because about halfway through the film moves into the plane of expectation and the inevitable boredom that comes with it. This fact is reinforced by the relatively shallow and detached segment with Richard and Susan and especially the Tokyo segment, which is completely out of context. Fortunately, both are amply compensated by the story of the little Moroccan shooters (the best part of it for me). (11/04/2007)

An ambitious shot in the dark. It has some moral ideas, but they’re wrapped in an insanely lengthy filler that pretends to be an artistic rebellion against the traditional narrative, but it's just a few classically punctuated episodes in an aimless structure. The actors are excellent and some scenes are very strong, but that's not enough. 2 ½*. (08/06/2018)

For me, this film by Alejandro González Iñárritu is right between Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Once again, the director relies on several stories in which the characters' fates intertwine more than one would expect. And he does it that again, but, unlike 21 Grams, where I liked all the stories, the one with the Japanese girl didn't really fit. I had the same dilemma with Amores Perros, where I knocked 1* off the rating because of the hysterical ex-model. Half of the film is based on an excellent sequence of images, accompanied by a wonderful score (deserved Oscar!), often better than the redundant and boring script. As for the acting, I was most impressed with Adriana Barraza and (despite my issues with  her story) Rinko Kikuchi. The rest of the cast was also good, but these two performances just stood out. So, I would like to say that Babel is a film that is definitely not lacking in quality. Its weakness may have been its running time, but that's up to each individual. I probably wouldn't watch it a second time, but who knows? All in all, a better 4*. (06/22/2010)

Alejandro González Iñárritu is a director who is not responsible for so much, definitely not one of those who make at least one film annually. However, his films are still etched into the memories of viewers - they are strong, emotional, and dramatic. No, there is really not much humor in his films, he rather focuses on the more depressing aspects of human life. What he excels at is connecting storylines. He proved this with "Amores Perros" and he succeeded again here. One shot changes everything. It seems like it only changes one life, but in reality, everything changes. Lives that were once led, fall apart. Everyone lives in some world, in a different world, and suddenly it no longer makes sense. How do we deal with it? There is nothing we can do but accept the change. Because then... then it's just damnation. Well, these really aren't films for pleasant evenings with the family. But at least you will take something away from "Babel". And if you're wondering why "Babel", try to think about how many languages are actually spoken here. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/04/jumper-babel-kung-fu-divocina-miami.html (02/17/2013)