Film Review: Babel

The opening scene of Babel, the year's most ambitious film thus far (it's namesake is, after all, a Bible passage), finds a Moroccan family acquiring a high-powered rifle. The weapon is ostensibly protection against the predators that ravage their livestock, but as the family's two young children take turns firing into the dusty horizon, the rigid determination in their eyes warns of disaster to come. That disaster manifests itself in the accidental shooting of an American tourist (played by the luminous Cate Blanchett), an action that jumpstarts the film's central narrative.

What that narrative is remains blissfully murky-director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) both implies connections in the four stories he cuts between and refuses to dictate exactly what those connections are. Unlike the limp desperation of last year's Crash-where everything wrapped itself into a compact, commercially viable package-Iñárritu understands that creation of a successful portrait of current-day life simply cannot substitute resolution for substance.

With that said, the film's largest faults transpire in the final 20 minutes. Despite offering a few emotional crescendos, these conclusive scenes feel more like an addendum to a story that is still being played out.