Bond and Babble
I’d heard very mixed reviews Casino Royale and to be fair, it deserved them. The first hour was great; it was slick, well performed and generally really enjoyable. I liked Daniel Craig and the slightly darker tone adopted by Martin Campbell - all was well. But then, suddenly, “weirdness”. About two thirds in, the story careered of the road - as did the direction and the characterisation. It was as if Campbell had been fired and they got Michael Winner to finish it. The result was a very abrupt and disappointing conclusion.
Babel, or should I say Babble, is beautifully shot and all the performances are very strong (no-one really stealing the limelight), which is sadly where my enjoyment of this movie ended. The film is a series of seemingly unrelated viginettes strung together by a contrived (and, when it comes to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, a very familiar) plot device. There doesn’t appear to be a deeper theme or overriding idea connecting all these little stories together - aside from the fact it’s called Babel, and that left me a little numb. I also believe it to be true that an editor is a director’s best friend – it appears Inarritu fell out with his.
Overall it’s is fairly depressing, too long, dull and what story there is falls flat when the ‘connections’ are revealed. It’s a bit like watching a Hollywood re-make of casualty.
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