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Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The experience of watching Babel is undeniably riveting: Even if the film doesn't really lead anywhere, you still can't take your eyes off it. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It sweeps you along in a tide of cinematic energy and high-voltage drama. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The filmmakers don't seem to understand or care much about many of these people, but they use them to unload ideas about violence, communication, and tribal misunderstandings -- trading on suffering as they aim for cosmic wisdom. Read more
Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: The ultimate poor judgment: the decision to put Babel before the camera. That defies comprehension in any language. Read more
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: The film is something to see. But despite the dynamism of all those individual moments, Babel looks like an empty edifice. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Good intentions don't always make good movies. And this one simply wasn't worth their effort. Read more
Noel Murray, AV Club: Until [Babel] hits overload and short-circuits, it's often brilliantly cinematic. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: As each story comes to its conclusion, some characters rise above, while others are crushed under the weight of the day's events. The tales are equal parts miracle and tragedy. And that's often what life is, which makes Babel ring true. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: For a movie that insists on the truth of humanity's mutual dependency, Babel feels disconnected from anything but its own artistic determinism. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: The film explores the ways in which cultural assumptions and biases tend to obscure reality even when reality is plain, and the way our perceived differences keep us from finding a human connection to one other. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: [Inarritu] remains as entranced as ever by fate, loss and the interconnectedness of humankind, and I admire him for it. But Babel isn't the last or best word on that subject. It's just a lot of talk. Read more
Tom Charity, CNN.com: For all its apparent scope, the film's in-your-face fatalism ultimately feels forced. The cumulative effect is more grueling than cathartic, even if it may also be good for the soul. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: If they really want to appear radical the next time out, my advice is: Tell a single story and tell it well. What a concept. Read more
Michael Booth, Denver Post: Babel is the masterful third installment in this trilogy of truth and consequence. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Something of a one-note film, albeit a beautifully played note. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Unflappable desert village life, pulsing Tokyo teen culture, and a vibrant Mexican wedding are treated with reverence and delight, in unsubtle contrast to depictions of people lost in cultural wildernesses. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: An extension and expansion of 21 Grams in every way, and this time proves too much of a mystical thing. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Individually, the stories are beautifully shot, intimately acted and usually engrossing. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Babel has an undeniable power, even (or perhaps especially) when it's at its most contrived and implausible. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: If Babel falls an inch or three short of greatness, it's always a great ride. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: If Babel were a football game, I'd flag it 15 yards for piling on. Others may want to give it an Oscar. To each his own. Read more
David Denby, New Yorker: Inarritu has enough talent to shake up conventional moviemaking. But he still hasn't figured out how to use it. Read more
Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: The biblical themes are reflected in the film's multilingual dialogue, broad geographic scope and, you could add, its failed ambitions. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: ...A powerful movie that should win all the year's ensemble acting awards. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The terrorizing of two sets of children a continent apart may strike some viewers -- and does strike this viewer -- as unduly manipulative. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's a great film made with style and heart and hope, a cautionary parable and an almost certain Oscar contender. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Its complex (yet not mystifying) storytelling, forceful character development, and superb cinematography make this a candidate for one of 2006's best offerings. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The problem with Babel isn't that it's a bad movie. It's a good movie, or, more accurately, it's several pieces of good movie, chopped up in service of a pretentious, portentous and slightly silly artistic vision. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: In the end, a film of profound ambition is unmasked as one without real purpose, a misguided attempt to make a serious, important statement despite having nothing, really, to say. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: Makes Crash, another recent film with converging stories and a multicultural cast, look like an undergraduate term paper on race relations. Read more
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: One of the most challenging and saddest movies of the year -- and also one of the most memorable. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Ambitious and absorbing for nearly all its 2 1/2-hour running time. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Babel is supposed to be a cry of humanist anguish that echoes -- in four languages -- around the world. Why does it feel as much like an elaborate game of middlebrow post-millennial Clue? Read more
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: The actors -- including [Gonzalez Inarritu's] two big stars -- are all wonderfully real, seemingly as surprised by the depths and dangers of their circumstances and emotions as we are. Read more
Mark Holcomb, Time Out: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's latest sprawling, dispersed art-film blockbuster prompts a question: Does he just not know how to tell a story? Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: How Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga seamlessly link these four stories makes for an unconventional film experience that is weighty, thought-provoking and riveting. Read more
Jim Ridley, Village Voice: Time perhaps scrambling it's for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to stop his narratives. Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: It's pretty -- oh, what's the word? -- stupid in its dramatization of the silly little connections that unite us, and it's somewhat selective in its choice of them. Read more