BABIES!!

Isn't that what you think every time you see the trailer for the new documentary film? Babies follows the youngest of four families through their first year until they start to walk. A great premise that was not at all executed well.

The four families that were chosen came from different countries and situations (one assumes in an attempt to show that we are all the same). Unfortunately I didn't get that at all and what's more, I found myself getting annoyed with the parents from San Fransisco and their insistence on speaking a language I could understand. Not a good sign. The film has consciously chosen not to interview the parents in order to focus our attention on their protagonists (the titular babies) and as a marketing strategy it works beautifully. Change a little text and your film can be shown Inc any country in the world. As a storytelling technique it comes off a little lacklustre.

The problem is not in the setup though but rather the execution of the film. The babies are not compelling enough to keep my attention for two hours and the interesting life of the children (who live in Nimibia, Mongolia, Japan and San Fransisco) is never mined because the filmmakers wanted to prove their preconceived notion of what they would find so they weren't looking for anything else. The babies were cute, the film was surprisingly short and ultimately it's a good thing to support documentaries but I would suggest you save your money and spend it on ice cream and a walk in the park, it'll be much more exciting.