Good movie scores have the ability to make a bad movie feel ok, and an ok movie feel pretty good. After revisiting the movie after over 10 years, I can tell you Babel is one of those ok-turned-good movie, thanks to the wonderful scoring by Gustavo Santaolalla. The Oscar was very well deserved.
The acting frankly was pretty standard, not only I felt that the superstars in the film didn't get their chance to shine, i was more surprised by the Moroccan casts (the shepherd family) than the oscar nominated performance of Rinko Kikuchi. The cause maybe is that now she's a well established actress and a familiar face, and the "wow factor" back in 2006 is just no longer there for me.
And honestly the Japan storyline barely had any relationship with the rest of the story, and felt more like a side story than a chapter. That was quite disappointing.
As gloomy as it was, on the plus side the movie was very sincere and provided a good opportunity for viewers to review themselves on their ethics. The distance between each and everyone of us, what's separating us? When life's on the line, how are we to coop with our indifference and survive? These ethical questions are boring for most people but they are not useless, because when the time actually comes for you to make those choices, you will thank Iñárritu for giving you Babel.