This film relates to two popular concepts: the "butterfly effect" and "when it rains it pours." I feel this film is a slick attempt to manipulate these concepts. In Babel the butterflies are very big and it rains in the desert.A rifle is fired carelessly in Morocco. A Japanese girl is devastated by her mother's death. A nanny decides to take two children under her care across the border into Mexico without their parents' permission. These events all come together and have a traumatic impact on many different people. People suffer in this film.Particularly slick and exploitive is the segment about the deaf teenager. Her story is only very tenuously connected to the others. The viewer must decide why it is included.A lot of money was spent and a couple of star actors were hired. For what purpose? What do we learn? Who was entertained? The actors followed their directions and the script...to nowhere.