An apple of the Academy's eye

Babel finally made it to Gillette. It would have been nice to see it in, say, November, but it was worth the wait. What a movie.

If you have yet to see it, go directly to a movie theatre, drop the $8 for a ticket and $5 for popcorn, sit back and prepare to be floored. This is definitely not one for a TV unless you have one of those sweet 52-inch setups with surround sound and all the other bells and whistles.

The story is woven in parallel narratives but I think it might better be described as a series of circles moving closer and closer toward the connections that bind the dozen or so characters across three continents. It's like going from twine, easily frayed and pulled apart, to silk thread — fine and strong and smooth.

Brad Pitt put in a hell of a performance, as did Adriana Barraza, who is up for best supporting actress along with co-star Rinko Kikuchi. But while the acting was superb, the story may have been better. And the cinematography. And the score. And the concept of having a deaf girl — played by Rinko — tell such a crucial part of the story through her misunderstood silence.

The movie is full of symbolism metaphors, littered with emotion, packed with incredible vistas and haunted by a sense of humanity almost unmatched by any movie I've seen since Crash, which I really liked... I'm kind of a sucker for the parallel narratives, I guess.

It’s the second "Best Picture" nominee I've seen and it holds up well against the other one I saw — Little Miss Sunshine. Just as humane but thankfully, much funnier. The Academy can get carried away with the downers, so it’s good to see a lighter flick in the thick of things.