Babel (2006)

If there was an overall loser at this year's American Academy Awards, it has to be Babel. Nominated for 'Best Film', 'Best Director', 'Best Supporting Actress' and 'Best Editing' the film came away with only a 'Best Music Score' oscar to show for all its efforts, despite having a story that would appear to have been specially crafted to appeal to the average Academy voter.

For many critics in Britain, that slavish devotion to traditionally popular Oscar themes, was the film's biggest weakness, resulting in several savage reviews dismissing the film for its formulaic, 'pretentious' storyline, slow pacing and apparently interminable, self-indulgent running time. Indeed, the backlash was such that the film seemed to go from hero to zero within minutes of its nominations for the Academy Awards being announced.

The film has four main interlocking stories, each set at different locations around the world. At first the stories seem somewhat jumbled and unrelated, but as time moves on it becomes clear that there are common threads that link each of the stories together, although I'd admit that the late-breaking narrative element that attempts to link the Japanese segment of the story to the two segments set in Morocco is tenuous to say the least.

The theme of all four stories is that of devastating, life-changing unhappiness arising from what should be fairly insignificant events - unhappiness that's invariably been caused by a simple failure to communicate across cultural and language differences. It's the old biblical tale of the Tower of Babel that gives the film its title, and its central theme of a common humanity being separated by an inability to speak the same language.

The extremely vicious reviews dished out by some critics seem to be either a backlash against the whole post-9/11 naval gazing that has dominated the American media for the past few years, or perhaps are simple disappointment that the two big celebrities used to promote the film as if it were a big mainstream Hollywood blockbuster - Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette - actually feature for very little of the running time of the film.

Neither reaction seems to me to be fair. The movie could certainly benefit from being cut down a little from its near two-and-a-half-hours running time, but overall it's a refreshingly different take on a common theme, and one that is beautifully shot and interpreted by an international ensemble filmed across several continents in several different languages.

Some of the coincidences may well be a little too contrived, and the Japanese segment in particular outstays its welcome at times, but in general the film is a thing of beauty, and has a heart and spontaneity which makes lazy labels like 'overly pretentious' extremely unfair. Babel won't be to everyone's tastes, and in many ways it's a 'difficult' film to sit through, but that doesn't make it a bad film!

Babel is the third, and apparently final, collaboration between director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga, touted as the final part of a trilogy that includes Amores Perros and 21 Grammes. The acting is universally excellent, not just from the big names like the afore-mentioned Blanchette and Pitt, joined by Mexico's hottest young actor right now, Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries and The King), but also from the less well-known actors, including the oscar-nominated Ringo Kikuchi who makes a stunning debut with her first film acting performance.

The directorial style is mainly that of a documentary, with most of the shots being hand-held to give a certain authenticity, which works perfectly for the material presented here. Only one scene, set in an overly loud disco in Japan, felt fake and unreal, but this may have been the director's deliberate intention, given that the main character is on drugs for that segment of the film.

The transfer is stunning, with the film being in better condition than I remember from the official British premiere which took place as part of The London Film Festival late last year. Colours are realistic, without being saturated, and the picture is frequently pin-sharp - no mean achievement given the 'on the hoof' hand-held nature of a lot of the filming.

Sound too is well-presented without being too intrusive, and the award-winning sound-track adds beautifully to the overall atmosphere and sense of world culture that seems to be imbued into the very fabric of the film.

Alas, despite the high premium price, which is unusual given that this is (thankfully) not a 'combo' disk, there are no extra's at all other than a trailer.

This is a very poor show since supplementary material is undoubtedly available. Taschen books have produced a great big heavy tome on the film, and if they could find sufficient material there's no reason why the film makers couldn't. The disc reeks of being rush-released to maximise oscar coverage exposure, and an improved 'special edition' disc will undoubtedly be made available at some future date.

If you haven't got the patience to wait for that inevitable special edition, then this is a good film released on a disc that helps showcase the high definition format. But the high asking price and lack of any extra's mean that if you're not in a great rush to catch the main feature you're probably best advised to wait and see in what form the film resurfaces over the next 12-24 months.