Sometimes, my hopes are so high for a film that when I finally see it, it falls off the altar I had planned for it and I dismiss it.  Such was the case with Babel in 2006 when I rushed to opening night to see it.  I walked away angry, feeling like I’d been had, and spoke poorly of the film.

Oftentimes, when I go back and watch such movies again (sans expectation), I find that the film was actually quite good - just in a different way than I’d wanted/expected it to be.  That being the case, I gave Babel another shot last night.  I spent the first hour thinking “here’s another example of my hot-headedness dismissing something for no good reason,” planning to file this example away as supporting evidence for some day when my own film is getting destroyed by a reviewer.

But then the third act began, and a story with great potential disintegrated before my eyes; I was reminded why I’d disliked it so heartily before.  Watching characters I like make smart choices and remain cornered by tough situations interests me.  Watching stupid characters make one dumb decision after another (like getting in a car with a drunk driver and two kids, or roughing up the Moroccan authorities who are trying to be of assistance, or getting going into the desert in the middle of the night with two kids, or not taking your wife on the bus to the hospital, or abandoning kids in the desert...) just gives me a headache, and I lose my ability to sympathize.

In the third act, every character of the film makes stupid decisions.  And not just one or two, but lots of them!  By this means, climax comes.  And I (and all others I viewed the film with, the first and second time) walk away feeling manipulated.  I’ll give it one exception - Chieko (the deaf girl in Tokyo).  Her story never resorted to bullshit; it was quite touching.  Still, it was lost in the mud of the schlock that was the conclusion of the other three storylines.