?BABEL? -- A World of Misunderstandings cause much PAIN on the Planet Rating: 9 of 10 stars (based on viewing an HD-DVD copy of the film) =
A married couple from San Diego, Richard & Susan Jones (BRAD PITT & CATE BLANCHETT) are on a vacation in a bus touring a desert countryside area of Morocco. They?ve left their two young kids with their lifelong Mexican nanny Amelia (ADRIANA BARRAZA). In the desert, a goat-owner buys a rifle for safety from a local guide (who got it as a gift from a Japanese hunter). He lets his two sons carry the rifle to keep jackals away from his herd. But, the sons are very competitive, &, in practice shooting, 1 thoughtlessly injures CATE as she rides in the bus. Naturally, things keep ?spiraling? ever more out of control with the various groups: a Japanese girl keeps having more and more emotional problems; Adriana takes Brad's kids to Mexico; & the Moroccan boys (considered "terrorists") try to hide what they?d done. . It?s an impressively-done story of how seemingly-?small? incidents can lead to MAJOR consequences in a ?domino? effect, with an interweaving of stories of at least 4 main groups.