by MATTHEW HAYS

The final film in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s loose trilogy of films dealing with multiple interlocking narratives, Babel, is undoubtedly the most stunning-looking picture this year. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto was handed some exquisite source material to work with: screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga’s script calls for three loosely linked storylines to unfold in such photogenic places as Morocco, Tokyo California and Mexico.

Like Iñárritu’s two previous features (Amores perros and 21 Grams), the film jumps between several different characters in its network narrative. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett play a couple on vacation in Morocco; their relationship is tortured, and then—just what they needed—she gets shot on the bus they’re on. Desperate to try and keep her alive while they figure out how to get her to a half-decent hospital, the couple are thrust into a scenario of high anxiety. Their cute and puckish children, meanwhile, are back in California, where their Mexican maid has to get to Mexico to attend her son’s wedding. She chooses to take the kids with her. Meanwhile, we cut to the boys in Morocco who fired the shots that unintentionally hit Blanchett on board the bus; and back to another soapy subplot in Tokyo, to the original owner of the gun that shot Blanchett.

Babel’s got great performances, high production values and a complex intertwining series of plots. But a sinking feeling sets in as the film unspools: Babel feels like one great big overwrought melodrama. As the characters weave their way through their respective obstacle courses, it becomes less a movie that unfolds organically, and more like a season of Survivor or a snuff movie. This is the porn of tragedy—the money shot comes when some unlucky character gets it. The problem for Iñárritu is, we now know his shtick so well that nothing about Babel feels natural or surprising.

Who is going to croak in the desert? Will one of those cute kids get shot? Will someone get deported, seeing as they were dim enough to cross the border when they don’t have American citizenship or their green card? Stay tuned to the end of this 140-minute-plus movie, and you too can find out. I was tired out long before the climax.

Babel opens Friday, Nov. 3

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