Babble, babble, 'Babel'

"Babel" (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, US, 2006, 142 mins.) Ok. I will fully disclose that I fell asleep SEVERAL times during "Babel", and that was with the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and special guest Sean Penn in attendance too. Similar to Iñárritu's "21 Grams", the film is FILLED with histrionics that his talented cast dive in with reckless abandon. However, to distract us from the melodramatics, Iñárritu uses a non-linear sequence to keep us thrown off and guessing as to why and how the four story lines interconnect.

Ironically, the sub-plot that I found myself sleeping through its near entirety is set in Japan and features Rinko Kikuchi in an anticipated Oscar nominated performance. She plays a deaf girl, which might have been part of why I found it so difficult to stay awake during those sequences. I was also unprepared for the length of the film, at nearly 2 and a half hours.

"Babel" is getting all sorts of 'Award Season Hype' and frankly, even with all the hype and the fact I might have dozed off through as much as a fourth of the film, I simply was so emotionally uninvolved (and actually giggling during some of the climax, to the irritation of the overly emotionally involved woman next to me!) that I have NO interest in trying to see it again. I just find "Babel", and Iñárritu, melodramatic and gimmicky, regardless of the emotional dedication he seems to inspire in his cast.