Babel is Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fifth film, his most acclaimed being Amores Perros (2000), aka Love’s a Bitch, a Spanish-language film telling several interconnecting stories that take place in modern-day Mexico City. In Babel, Iñárritu uses the same gritty style with which he hammered audiences in Amores Perros to tell three more stories -- but this time, the stories are not only slightly displaced in time, they take place in different countries. How these stories are connected -- well, you’ll just have to see the film.

One story concerns an American couple, Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), traveling in Morocco. Their marriage appears to be in trouble; clearly they care for one another, but seem to have trouble communicating, and have planned this trip to help them better connect. While on a tour bus in a remote part of the country, Susan is shot through the window of the bus. The first thought on everyone’s mind is that, being American, they have been targeted by terrorists. The nearest hospital is hours away, and as Susan lies in the bus, dying, Richard convinces the driver to take them to a local town to seek medical attention. His only means of communication with the townsfolk and the authorities is through the tour guide, Anwar (Mohamed Akhzam), a native Moroccan.

At more or less the same time, in Japan, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a young, deaf-mute schoolgirl in her late teens, is living with her father, a successful businessman, in an upscale apartment in Tokyo. She hangs out with her other deaf-mute girlfriends at various popular locales, but despite her popularity, she longs to connect with someone in the hearing world. Chieko goes to extraordinary lengths to do so, but each time is rebuffed.

In the US, two children are being looked after by their Mexican housekeeper, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), whose son is getting married across the border. The children’s parents are away and unable to return home in time for Amelia to attend her son’s wedding. In desperation, she calls her nephew, Santiago (Gael García Bernal), to drive her and the children to Mexico. But, as on many road trips, not everything goes as planned.

Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (who also wrote Amores Perros) have created three tense dramas, and Iñárritu’s choice of music, including an original score by Gustavo Santaolalla, builds suspense and foreboding throughout, supporting the senses of fear and impending tragedy.

Each story is extraordinarily interesting in its own right, and placing each in a different country holds our attention and keeps us wondering when we will discover the connection. That these disparate stories are connected points out how small the world really is and that our actions, even on a small scale, can have far-reaching consequences.

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