What's wrong with "Babel"

Peter Bradshaw, writing in The Guardian, has written a marvelous review of Babel that lucidly explains just what's wrong with this much touted film:

There are some films that arrive here from the international festival circuit almost incandescent with self-importance. They hover into the cinema in a kind of floating trance at how challenging and moving they are. They are films with a profound reluctance to get over themselves. They look up at the sceptical observer with the saucer-eyed saintliness of a baby seal in culling season, or a charity mugger smilingly wishing a nice day on the retreating back of a passer-by.

One such is Babel, the exasperatingly conceited new film from Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Some scenes are quite well done, others not so. The behavior of the police officers of the various nations seems plausible. On the other hand, scenes depicting some quite deplorable behavior on the part of the Western tourists stuck on the bus were unconvincing. If you travel a lot, the movie will seem fake.

Now that I have lowered your expectations, rent Babel sometime. You just might enjoy it.