Headlining stars and unknown nonprofessional actors alike are spellbinding in this harrowing, stomach-turning chain of events, linking personal family tragedies across the globe with a single gunshot. The chaotic, overlapping stories of panic, loss and thwarted attempts at human connection (an American tourist fighting to keep alive his dangerously-wounded wife, a Moroccan family targeted by a terrorist-seeking police force, a Mexican nanny trying to get from her posh employers' home in San Diego to her son's wedding across the border, and a Japanese deaf-mute teenager grieving her mother's recent suicide), heightened by modern barriers of fear and language, both juxtapose and homogenize human experiences on either side of the divide between first and third-world nations. "In the year's richest, most complex and ultimately most heartbreaking film, Inarritu [with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga] invites us to get past the babble of modern civilization and start listening to each other." (Rolling Stone) In French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Berber, Arabic and Sign Language with English subtitles. More at paramountvantage.com/babel.
2006, color, 2 hours 22 minutes, USA