Cinema: Struggling to be heard

With three concurrent stories happening on three continents, Babel explores the limits of human endurance while over in Philly, Rocky proves that he still has what it takes. By Declan Burke

Hot-button topics such as culture, race and identity are remarked upon by their very absence in Babel (16s), in which three stories from different continents explore the limits of human endurance in the face of tragedy. An American couple in Morocco have their holiday shattered when the wife is shot through a bus window by a suspected terrorist; the woman minding their children back in the States takes the chance of bringing the kids across the Mexican border to attend her son's wedding, a decision that utterly changes her life; and a Japanese deaf-mute teen, struggling to come to terms with her mother's suicide, learns that her father had a part to play in the Moroccan shooting.   

Benefiting from Rodrigo Prieto's spectacular cinematography, which contrasts the various settings to unsettling effect (the desolate terrain of the Mexican and Moroccan deserts are every bit as bleakly hostile an environment as the ultra-modern Japanese city), Babel is an exquisitely made film that refuses to overly sentimentalise its characters or their predicaments, despite the fact that none of the characters are responsible for the tragic circumstances they find themselves in. Brad Pitt, Rinko Kikuchi and Adriano Bazzaro turn in excellent performances, all three contributing well-rounded and believable characters despite the foreshortened screen-time a multiple narrative allows.

The multi-strand narrative is characteristic of previous movies directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Innarritu, such as Amores Perros and 21 Grams, but it's in its insistence on hammering home the connections between the three stories that the movie falters. The film would have been equally affecting if the tales were told as stand-alone stories, and there are times (when the Moroccan shooting pops up as a news item on a programme broadcast to a hip Japanese J-Pop bar, for example) when the grafts appear clumsily soldered on. Meanwhile, the Japanese segment is so quickly and unconvincingly wrapped up that it undermines the previously superb depiction of an alienating urban environment.

South Philly is, in its own way, just as bleak a setting as those in Babel. It's home to Rocky (Sylvester Stallone), the ageing, punch-drunk ex-heavyweight champion of the world, now the owner of a small Italian restaurant and something of a Philadelphia hero. But when a computer-simulated bout between ex-champ Rocky and current champ Mason ‘The Line' Dixon (Antonio Tarver) suggests that Rocky is a pound-for-pound better fighter, Rocky starts to feel the old fire start to burn again. When Dixon's agents rush to set up an exhibition match between the two, Rocky decides to step into the ring one last time.  

Much as it's difficult to dislike the amiable character of the humble veteran portrayed with knowing but affectionate self-mockery by Stallone, it's hard to resist the ramshackle charms of Rocky Balboa (PG). Stirring speeches about self-worth and raging against the dying of the light keep the pot bubbling until the extended finale of the exhibition fight is reached, at which point Stallone, who also writes and directs, can't resist an implausibly explosive climax; had he paused to consult Rocky on the matter, Stallone might well have chosen a more humble note on which to retire his career-defining hero.   

Babel ****

Rocky Balboa ***