Babel

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2:22

Babel

R

Released Nov 10, 2006

2h 22m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

68%

Tomatometer

203 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

An accident connects four groups of people on three different continents: two young Moroccan goatherds, a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett), a deaf Japanese teen and her father, and a Mexican nanny who takes her young charges across a border without parental permission.

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Critics Consensus

In Babel, there are no villains, only victims of fate and circumstance. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu weaves four of their woeful stories into this mature and multidimensional film.

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Namrata Joshi

Outlook

There are moments when a lot is left unsaid. There's a remarkable stillness and delicacy as the music and images interplay and do all the talking.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 23, 2019

Full Review

Brian Tallerico

UGO

The kind of film that will echo deep in your soul.

Mar 24, 2007

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Mark Holcomb

Time Out

Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest sprawling, dispersed art-film blockbuster prompts a question: Does he just not know how to tell a story?

Rated: 2/6

Feb 3, 2007

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Josh Slater-Williams

Vague Visages

Babel is Crash with delusions of global grandeur; a film that masquerades as a sweeping, humanistic epic, but is instead an ultimately hammy, superficial and miserablist game of connect-the-dots.

Nov 14, 2023

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Murtada Elfadl

Sundays with Cate

Blanchett and Pitt are playing a version of the "ugly Americans abroad" trope. The film does not shy away from presenting them as entitled despite the circumstances that they are in.

Rated: B

Mar 4, 2022

Full Review

Catherine Springer

CathsFilmForum.com

Unlike Crash, where the characters felt like cartoons and stereotypes, these characters are fleshed out and real, and the performances are first-rate, with a performance from Brad Pitt that is his most mature work.

Jul 11, 2021

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Agnes K

Słaby… mało zajmujące historie. Tylko tych biednych chłopców żal…

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/20/25

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Zuri sadai L

De las mejores películas al nivel de y tú mamá también

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/26/25

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Audience Member

Felt horrible. My gen-z brain was waiting for a happy end but no.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/09/25

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Torin F

BABEL is a critically-acclaimed film of interconnection, skillfully portraying four disparate storylines with interest, sensitivity and consistent character-driven engagement. All storylines dissolve in overt tragedy and/or sadness, however, which fulfills the expected cinematic "resolution" of the film's "ending," but leaves lingering "so what?" questions about the point of it all, and thereby carries at least a faint whiff of emotional manipulation.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

12/01/24

Full Review

Audience Member

This is unquestionably an art film, but I hesitate to call it entertainment. It is akin to a composer using 12-tone dissonance to prove his understanding of music theory. The alleged intent of the movie is to create empathy for culture clashes and communication failures and the human lives caught in between. As much as I really wanted to see this film, I just felt myself growing angrier and angrier at the contrivance and lack of purpose and balance in the plot. It simply wasn't fair. So many negatives were stacked together to make the unthinkable sequence of events and consequences, it simply felt academic and false. Life isn't this bleak, hopeless, and dark. Nothing good happens in the story. Nothing. No one ends up with anything but desolation and ruins of what had been happy lives. This is the high brow version of Eric Cartman crapping in the porta-toilet on the girls hiding there, and then reporting that they were hiding in there. Don't watch this movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/31/24

Full Review

KB B

This was such a compelling film that was so sad at times. I watched it many years ago and couldn't remember very much so I gave it another view. I really liked how the 3 stories slightly intertwined. It's definitely worth the watch.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/19/24

Full Review

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Alejandro González Iñárritu

Director

Brad Pitt

Richard

Cate Blanchett

Susan

Gael García Bernal

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Adriana Barraza

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Babel: Trailer 1

2:22

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Synopsis

An accident connects four groups of people on three different continents: two young Moroccan goatherds, a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett), a deaf Japanese teen and her father, and a Mexican nanny who takes her young charges across a border without parental permission.

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Producer: Steve Golin, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik
Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Central Films, Paramount Pictures, StudioCanal, Dune, Media Rights Capital (MRC), Anonymous Content, Paramount Vantage, Zeta Film
Rating: R (Sexual Content|Language|Some Drug Use|Some Graphic Nudity|Violence)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Arabic
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 10, 2006, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 15, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $34.3M
Runtime: 2h 22m

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