How much make up does it take to make a 43-year-old actor look like a 43-year-old character? If the actor is Brad Pitt, lots! In Alejandro Iñarritu's Babel Pitt plays a convincing middle-aged husband with dark rings around his eyes. The make up, however, is notorious and doesn't help his character. This is not the worse problem of a boring film, wonderfully shot and way too self-indulgent. It's a shame that Iñarritu didn't follow the pattern of his amazing Amores perros (2000) and 21 grams (2003): that is, conciseness. There's something I really liked about Babel, though: despite his being a left-wing film-maker, Iñarritu manages to avoid easy dichotomies and saves us the shame of seeing good/poor characters being oppressed by evil/rich ones.
The only thing that Babel and Notes on a Scandal have in common is gorgeous Cate Blanchett. Otherwise, Richard Eyre's film is an effective psychological thriller that fixes you to the seat. There's nothing left out, nor there's anything unnecesary. The adaptation of Zoe Heller's 2003 novel is wonderful, since it keeps all the essential bits, while remaining free from the constraints of the literary narration. In doing so, Eyre directs a wonderful film that should lead all the spectators to read Heller's book. The acting of Blanchett, Dame Judi Dench, Billy Nighy and super-cute Andrew Simpson (who plays the chavvy boy who sleeps his teacher) is glorious.
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