--- title: "Babel: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/babel/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/babel" critics_score: 53 critics_reviews: 6 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Babel (2006): what the critics said Critics' score 53 from 6 reviews: 3 positive, 0 mixed, 3 negative. The reviews are sharply divided on Babel, though praise clusters around its visual force, emotional tension and performances. Admirers find the intersecting stories an affecting account of lives shaped by misunderstanding, prejudice and fear. They see the international scope as serving recognisable human concerns, especially family relationships and failures of communication. Screen Daily singles out Cate Blanchett and Adriana Barraza, while even some less convinced reviews acknowledge the impact of sequences that work without dialogue. The disagreement is over whether those connections carry enough dramatic weight. Supporters find feeling and anger in the structure; detractors find contrivance, thin characters and suffering arranged to make an obvious point. Reservations also concern a second half that loses momentum as resolutions accumulate. Time Out regards the global connections as dramatically unproductive, while Film Comment challenges the performances themselves. The spread is wide: what moves one group strikes another as coercive and self-important. ## Empire — Ian Freer Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 2 January 2007. Iñárritu’s ambitious, globe-spanning closure to his trilogy is terrific cinema with great performances, searing imagery and emotional tension that builds dread across intersecting stories. It explores big themes like globalisation and prejudice through humanist eyes without pat answers, though some may find the coincidences overwrought. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/babel-review/) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Rating B-. 27 October 2006. The film starts promisingly but gradually deflates in its back half as resolutions pile on. It is gut-wrenching at times yet turns stilted, with the strongest element being its brilliantly cinematic sequences when no one is talking. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/babel-1798202306) ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 9 October 2006. The director's one-note sensibility produces wafer-thin characters and jerry-rigged stories reliant on scare tactics. The film earns some credit for its critique of American privilege and the heart shown in the Moroccan support scenes, but overall sacrifices nuance for connect-the-dots plotting. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/babel/) ## Film Comment — Kent Jones Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 1 July 2006. Festival review. The critic finds the film bloated with self-importance and immobilized by its sprawling global narrative. He singles out the inexplicable nasty behaviors and lack of genuine performances for complaint. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/cannes-2006-the-humanity/) ## Time Out — Dave Calhoun Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 15 January 2007. The review calls the film an energetic but thoroughly depressing and shallow exercise in flashy suffering, criticizing its contrived global connections and banal message as offering no real dramatic benefit beyond misery. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/babel-1) ## Screen Daily 28 May 2006. Festival review. The critic sees the film maturing into a melancholy meditation on humanity divided by misunderstanding, prejudice and fear, with strong performances from Cate Blanchett and Adriana Barraza standing out amid the multi-stranded narrative. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/babel/4027486.article) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw 21 January 2007. The critic finds the film an impressive, beautifully acted work with a tragic sense of life; its formal structure controls a seething anger. The global village it depicts is harsh and unfair, dramatising failures of communication and understanding without stating them directly. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/jan/21/bradpitt.thriller) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott 27 October 2006. The film is a grand, ambitious wreck lacking coherent narrative logic, yet it possesses undeniable aesthetic force and physical impact through its sensory exuberance and jarring storytelling across continents. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/movies/27babe.html) ## The Skinny — Alec McLeod Rating 4/5. 11 January 2007. The critic praises the film's massive scope and its focus on parent-child relationships amid international themes. He singles out its stylistic evocations of other world cinema as part of a strong statement on keeping children safe. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/babel) ## Eye for Film — Anton Bitel 8 January 2007. The critic praises Babel as Iñárritu and Arriaga's most ambitious project, an affecting examination of disconnected lives in an interconnected world with flawless ensemble performances and moving human dramas. They single out the polyphony of languages and cinematic allusions for creating barriers and bridges, calling it superbly crafted melodrama for the new millennium. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/babel-film-review-by-anton-bitel) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/babel.md