Babel

Guess I'd better start with a disclaimer: I did not see the first two films in the trilogy. But after all the 'critical acclaim,' we bought the movie "Babel" and watched it last night.

For me, it was a real disappointment.
Yes, I cared about the characters, so the director did something right.

But watching such long portions in languages I couldn't understand (while it made a point) still proved more than tedious at times. And finding our common humanity only through banality was annoyingly post-modern.
While the premise: "We are all human, we all suffer" is true, suffering is hardly what makes us human.

Guess my biggest beef was not in the shallow answers the film offered, but in the questions it neglected to ask.

Why are so many mommies and daddies running off to third world countries entrusting the care of their young children to illegal aliens then acting surprised when other countries don't operate the way we do in the United States. (Note to self-absorbed parents at home and abroad: If you don't take care of your kids, why should you expect anyone else to?)

What did the Korean subplot have to do with it? And do we really want to watch as she drops trou, shoots the beave and repeatedly sets herself up for physical rejection while feverishly spribbling notes we cannot read.

Oh yeah, I forgot, language barriers are the only thing that divides us. The need to pee on a regular basis and invite moviegoers into the bathroom with us has the power to unite us. There's nothing dumber than a U.S. immigration officer, right?

For me, "Babble" would have been a more accurate name.