BABEL

Just watched Babel with Daryl at The Cathay and it is AWESOME!!!!! Babel is now the best film i've ever watched. I would no doubt give this film a down-pat 5 stars and i have never bestowed this honour to any film before.

Babel starts off with a Moroccan villager buying a rifle to shoot jackals to protect his herd of sheep. His sons were entrusted the task of handling the rifle and disaster strikes when their target training results in a shot into a tour bus that injures an American woman.

Concurrently, the story about a Mexican maid and the children she is looking after unfolds when her employer overseas refuses to let her off to her son's wedding. She brings the children on a whirlwind trip to Mexico for her son's wedding.

Simultaneously, a deaf-mute Japanese girl who yearns for love and affection tries her best to get the attention of the opposite sex but fails in each attempt to do so. She exploits her sexuality but she is still unable to get the message across to the people she likes.

These 3 interesting and immensely engaging stories intertwine and build up with each subsequent sequence. The direction by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu is deft and amazingly skillful in the execution. The cinematography is superb with shots in the blazing desert, the Mexican suburbian cityscape, and the bright lights of the Japanese metropolis.

The acting is incredible with Rinko Kikuchi as the female youth who lets us in on her hedonistic lifestyle, Adriana Barraza as the devoted Mexican maid who regrets her decision to bring the children to Mexico, Kate Blanchett who suffers the unfortunate fate of being shot, and Brad Pitt who is the husband taking care of his injured wife.

The score is amazing with Gustavo Santaolalla as the composer of this film. He is also one of the composers for one of my favourite movies of all time, The Insider. I can't stop raving about this incredible, awesome, fantastic, brilliant, emotionally resonant, cross-cultural, cross-national film about human relationships, politics (terrorism and the issue of illegal immigrants in US), responsibilities, and violence.

Babel gets my vote for Oscar Best Picture without a doubt.

*****