Here’s another unworthy award contender. Yes, criticizing a movie which has been almost unanimously favored by members of a jury is like swimming against the tide when the birds are migrating southward. Didn’t make sense? Neither did BABEL.
Director Alejandro Inarritu presents this slow paced, eventful, deep but not quite, medley of tragedies while abruptly switching between stories to leave you either praising the genius filmmaker who has achieved the impossible or walk out at the end of it all in pain and sympathy for the jury. But then, ironic as it is, the juries are always known for their taste in cinema. They form a genre by themselves.
3 main stories, one of chance tragedy, one of grief and pain and one in search of redemption. All of them in strange circumstances in different lands, namely, Mexico, Morocco and Tokyo. The movie has been picturized well to capture the essence of all surroundings but that’s pretty much it.
Richard(Brad Pitt) and Susan(Cate Blanchett) are on a trip to Morocco while their two kids are in their hometown San Diego with the maid, Amelia, who defies Richard by taking the kids to Mexico to attend a wedding. Susan, is shot in the shoulder while they are traveling by a bus and is promptly taken to a remote village. The rest of the tourists are anxious to get out of there while Richard struggles to contact his embassy. Lack of doctors and medical facilities exacerbate the situation. The US govt. cannot take quick actions because of political tension. (the same theme in almost every movie looking at the way USA is being diplomatic)…It is an acutely painful and morose situation for the couple.
Meanwhile, Mexican maid Amelia is making out with an oldie in a wedding where the kids are having a gala time until they return with Amelia’s nephew(Gael Barnal) in the car only to be stopped by an official at the American border. That’s when the drunk and impatient nephew does the stupidest thing by speeding away from the scene.
Meanwhile again, we switch to and fro with a Moroccan hunter whose children were practicing shooting when they accidently shot at a bus. Little did they know that it would hit susan and lead to the desperate situation for Richard and the media which would declare the incident as a terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, yet again, in the same abrupt switches, we keep moving to Tokyo to witness the story of Chieko, a deaf-mute girl, struggling to seek love, attention and sex. One doesn’t know what really happens in the hang out areas in Tokyo but its hard to believe that girls take off their underwears to grab attention.
At the end, she stands nude at her balcony in a lot of pain. By now everyone in the movie is in a lot of pain including the audience. But what is she doing in the movie? Oh! Her father had once sold a gun to a hunter in Morocco….(That’s where the link is duh!).
The movie toggles between the stories abruptly. That’s when you feel that everything will eventually fall in place. The film is left at an ambiguous juncture. All characters are torn by obvious circumstances, they face communication problems but they’re obvious on territorial grounds and not otherwise and thus the film portrays the reality which is quite obvious in the circumstances. That’s where the problem is. The audience searches for something deeper. Something they haven’t seen before perhaps to which they might get an insight into. Something that will link it all with a common underlying theme beyond the obvious or something that’s different from the multi-storied themes in *Traffic *and *Crash*.
The film is nevertheless beautifully picturized in Morocco’s barren lands, in deserts of Mexico-San Diego border, in the bustling Tokyo streets and its night clubs where we see a noisy world through the eyes of a deaf Chieko. Yes these are some captivating sights but that’s about it. Performances by Brad Pitt and the Mexican maid are convincingly strong. The links in all stories hang loose on threads and the film doesn’t offer anything real to take back. About the diverse cultures, political aspects, difficulties in communication for a deaf-mute person or someone stranded in a country that doesn’t speak much of English is not something we aren’t aware of. These are all the obvious realities already repeated in many films.
Frankly, with such movies being termed as serious contenders for the awards, Rakesh Mehra and team must certainly push for RDB to get the votes. We might just bag it this time.