Babel

4 interlocking stories all connected by a single gun all converge at the end and reveal a complex and tragic story of the lives of humanity around the world and how we truly aren't all that different. In Morocco, a troubled married couple are on vacation trying to work out their differences. Meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd. A girl in Japan dealing with rejection, the death of her mother, the emotional distance of her father, her own self-consciousness, and a disability among many other issues, deals with modern life in the enormous metropolis of Tokyo, Japan. Then, on the opposite side of the world the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's 2 children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico, only to come into trouble on the return trip. Combined, it provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of seemingly random people around the world and it shows just how connected we really are.

Viewers  need to know that this film includes explicit, traumatic violence, especially by gunfire and especially involving young children. In one incident, a boy shoots a rifle at a tourists' bus from far away, accidentally hitting a young mother; she bleeds and becomes increasingly weak through the rest of the film. In another, authorities shoot at a father and his two young sons. When a nanny is lost in the desert with two young children, the kids become badly dehydrated and very sick. To shock some boys, a high school student shows off what's under her school uniform skirt. She also discusses her mother's suicide and considers it for herself; at one point she stands on a high rise balcony, frightening her father. The same girl later appears naked before a policeman (there are two shots of frontal nudity). A boy masturbates. Characters drink, smoke, do drugs, and use profanity, especially "f--k."

Thought this is a provoking adult movie, this film reminds us that life doesn't always tie things up with a neat ribbon, that all is not as it may appear and that love doesn't always conquer all. That being said, there is enough of redemption and forgiveness in the film to make it a possibility for older and young people.

RATING: ★★★✰✰