Judgment calls

Babel wants to blame government for characters’ bad choices | Megan Basham

Thomas Hobbes conveyed in a single sentence what director Alejandro González Iñárritu spends 142 minutes intimating—that our lives in nature are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

If that's not clear enough for you, or if your Christmas season starts out too jolly, then by all means subject yourself to an afternoon of Babel's worldview, in which personal responsibility counts for nothing and life is little more than a few respites of happiness in a sea of despair.

By weaving together four stories from all ends of the globe, Iñárritu endeavors to show us how cultural misunderstandings result in tragedy and how quickly government policies can ruin individual lives. From an emotional standpoint, the approach works. We can't help but feel guilty for our collective inadequacies.