The story of Babel is told in the Old Testament. Man, in his arrogance, decides to build a building so high that it will reach the heavens. Because everyone at that time spoke the same language, communications were clear and this impossible task seemed quite possible. So God destroyed the building and as a punishment gave the men a variety of languages; making it difficult to communicate …. And we’ve been having problems ever since. Babel tells four interwoven stories spanning continents to show how little has changed since that long ago Biblical time. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is communicate with one another.

In Morocco, two young herder’s sons (Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchani) are playing with their dad’s new rifle. They are supposed to be shooting at small animals that threaten the herd; but, the bored youths decide to see if they can hit a bus full of tourists passing below them. Meanwhile, a married American couple, Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) are on that fateful bus. Susan is hit by one of the boy’s bullets and is critically injured. Far from any hospital, the bus pulls into a small Moroccan village in search of help. Literally a world away in San Diego, Richard and Susan’s nanny Amelia (Adriana Barraza) is upset because she wants to attend her son’s wedding and there is no one there to care for the kids (Elle Fanning and Nathan Gamble). She ends up taking them with her into Mexico (not a good idea). Finally, a young deaf Japanese girl (Rinko Kikuchi) grapples with her mother’s suicide and teenage angst.

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu connects all these stories together and deftly moves between them. Although time shifts back and forth throughout the story, it is surprisingly easy to follow.

Unlike last year’s Syriana, this story of global and epic proportions doesn’t sacrifice story and character development to make a political point. The points are made (and in the case of illegal immigration made a bit too heavy-handedly) but we grow to care about the characters.

In particular, we feel for young Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) who desperately wants to connect with someone and tries urgently the only way she knows how. We feel for Amelia, who truly loves her charges and her life in America and quite possibly could lose it all. We feel for young Yusef who inadvertently started this whole thing and will have to live the rest of his life with the consequences of taking that fateful shot.

I have to say that Brad Pitt could possibly earn an Academy Award nomination as Richard the man desperate not only to save his marriage but to save his wife. His mixture of grief and guilt and desperation is real. I can’t think of the last time Pitt gave a performance of this caliber.

Babel brings a lot of issues to the surface from the large geo-political to the small and personal. You’ll leave with lots to talk about. Worth the time and the effort.