Review: BABIES; A Cute, Simple, Refreshing Little Film

By Shaun Munro / July 1, 2011

rating: 3

Though probably not the most pertinent subject in need of documentation, the depiction of infants during their first moments on Earth in Babies makes this a refreshingly simplistic piece that's got no issues to push nor any political statement to make. It won't make a dent in the box office and it can hardly be considered essential viewing, but it's serene, unpretentious, and boasts more than enough cute moments to justify its existence. Parents, I imagine, will love it. All-too potent it is that one of the very first shots in Babies is of a crowded Tokyo road crossing; these adults represent most of us as we are now, and of course, we were all babies once. Director Thomas Balmès aims to transport us back to that time by following four babies from birth to the age of one year, two from rural areas - Ponijao from Namibia and Bayar from Mongolia - and two from urban locales - Mari from Japan and Hattie from the United States. For bonus value, there are often siblings lingering around the frame, most of who would still quality as infants themselves. Beyond the strangeness of its pint-sized subject matter, Babies distinguishes itself through its keenness to keep things as light and inoffensive as possible. So it follows that there is essentially no narrative; think of it as a tot version of Koyaanisqatsi or Baraka. The concept will certainly do little for the casual filmgoer, but for parents and documentary nuts, this peculiar film will engage with its quiet observational style, capturing the essence of several family dynamics and how they differ as a result of both class and culture. A virtually dialogue-free excursion, Babies is instead keen to linger on the small moments in a human being's infancy - breastfeeding, sleeping, laughing, testing the boundaries with their siblings and even, in the spirit of covering all the bases, urinating. Typically this film revels in a lot of the things babies do that make their parents convulse with glee (at least for a while). While there's no plot to speak of and the promise of any real insight is scant at best, the great abundance of cute moments and some lovely shots certainly compensate; a pass through a shop, tracking close to a baby as she observes it with wonder, presumably for the first time, is lovely. Still, some will ask, what's the point? Babies won't tell you or show you much you haven't seen before, but it is an interesting experiment, and a somewhat universal subject given we all came from the same place. Some questions invariably arise, such as what effect the cameras had on the babies' behaviour, and a wordless format of course can't really do that or anything approaching character development justice. Still, it captures babies in all of their wide-eyed, unprejudiced wonder, and that's what matters. If you don't like children, this likely will do little to change your mind, but if you love kids, it'll be a cute little diversion; nothing more, nothing less.Babies is on a very limited U.K. cinema release right now.