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In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out--detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief.

"Babel" is an intense movie. Watching it puts a heavy feeling on your chest. It gives you a glimpse of how a failure in communications can turn your world upside down. The failure to communicate your thoughts, feelings and needs is amplified and portrayed so well in this movie, you can almost feel the lump in your throat and the frustration in your head.

Richard's (Pitt) trip to rediscover adventure and romance in Morocco with his wife Susan (Blanchett) turns into disaster when she is unintentionally shot by a Moroccan child. His fears turn into a full blown nightmare when all his efforts to communicate fail miserably. Not only is he unable to find proper medical care for Susan, his efforts to relate to the American embassy brings no progress at all. Instead, the incident is exaggerated and labelled as a terrorist attack.

The shooting incident on Morocco sparks off a chain of events that involve people all over the world. The nanny looking after Richard's two kids finds herself in a difficult situation with the absence of her employer. The family of the Moroccan child who fired the rifle and their neighbours are implicated as well. Even a Japanese girl struggling with her disabilities is somehow related to the event.

Ultimately, the movie focuses on the effects of not being able to communicate properly. The failure of communication is portrayed in so many different aspects as well, definitely a strong point of the movie for those who can understand the underlying implications.

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and the rest of the cast put in a realistic and dramatic performance that will put you in the thick of the conflict. Though the movie may move a little too slowly for some, you can feel the pulse and rush of feelings involved in every scene. You will feel the pain and anguish of the characters as they are put through their paces.

Is this how the people of Biblical times felt when their means of communication was taken away from them by God during the construction of the tower of Babel? This movie will touch the surface of communication diversity and show you how important understanding one another can be.

The Biblical story of Babel is about the consequences of unchecked ambition. As punishment for trying to build a tower to the heavens, the human race was scattered all over the face of the Earth in a state of confusion - divided, dislocated and unable to communicate. Now, after so many thousands of years and with such technological advances as mobile phones and the Internet, is the human race any different from the days of Babel?

Mexican film-maker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (who gave us "21 Grams") answers this question in "Babel" which is constructed as a 'time-and-place' puzzle. Like in the Biblical story, there is confusion and displacement in our minds as we try to grasp the seemingly unrelated events that stem from one mischievous act in a desolate corner of the world...

In the barren mountains of Morocco, a villager buys a rifle for his two sons to scare off the jackals that attack their goats. The next day, while using the gun for target practice, one of the siblings fires a round at a tourist bus. The boys think nothing of it - until they see the bus stopping a few minutes later.

The shot has found its mark - in the neck of American tourist Susan (Cate Blanchett) who is on vacation in Morocco with her hubby Richard (Brad Pitt). The couple's struggle to find medical aid almost turns into an international crisis with terrorist overtones. Meanwhile, in the US, a Mexican domestic maid's (Adriana Barraza) plan to attend her son's wedding in Tijuana, Mexico, is set in disarray by a phone call from her boss; and in Tokyo, a deaf-mute schoolgirl (Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko) and her father (Koji Yakusho) find that the police want to interview them - presumably over the death of her mother.

Inarritu criss-crosses among these four segments, jumping through overlapping periods of time and place, and we are left to figure out the actual chronology of the narrative ourselves. This may be bewildering in the first hour of the movie but things gradually fall into place as the plots unfold. In our high-tech world, a single gunshot in Morocco may be 'heard' all over the world but getting to the truth is another matter. We may have the means to communicate but not enough to understand and comprehend.

Inarritu and his screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are also adept at showing the clash of cultures. In a sequence in Tijuana, an act of slaughtering chicken shocks the visiting American kids while the local children do not even bat an eyelid; and in North Africa, the Americans learn that sentiments of urgency and anxiety can be lost in translation.

The most vibrant of the four is the Tokyo segment where we find the deaf-mute Chieko looking for sex and love among the crowds in the streets, nightspots, and even on the dentist's chair. Inarritu allows us to get into her quiet, lonely world and share her frustrations simply by switching off the soundtrack. And the most disturbing is the scene at the US border with Mexico where a Latino maid with her white charges is mistaken for an abductor.

Among the cast, Blanchett and Pitt earn their keep as an average middle class couple trying to resolve their marital woes by going on a vacation. Barraza has us rooting for her as a mother torn between her son and her two young American charges. And the two 'Moroccan siblings', Said Tarchani and Boubker Ait El Caid are effective as youngsters grappling with a dangerous 'toy'. However, the performance that stands out most must be Rinko Kikuchi's - who grabs our attention whenever she is on-screen exposing her timidity, sexuality, and eventually, rage.

"Babel" represents the final instalment of Inarritu's stylistic trilogy that began with "Amores Perros" (2000) and "21 Grams" (2003) - both dealing with how a freak accident connects and affects various people from different places. "Babel" is about misunderstanding and miscommunication - but Inarritu uses a universal language understood by all: the motion picture!