21 Grams

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source: 21 Grams

An unlikely freak accident progressively brings three people together to a gripping yet tragic conclusion. Using a non-linear exposition we are led through the three leads' existences and how one key moment changed their lives completely, and while this approach at times might hinder the film's emotional impact in lieu of cinematic technique, the story told in 21 GRAMS is nonetheless powerful thanks to the performances of Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, and Sean Penn. Of the three there are no stand-outs: all bring their heart and soul into their roles and Sean Penn could have easily won the Academy Award for Best Actor for this film since here, his role is rather difficult as his is more a plot device that effectively develops motives to act the way he does later on, but since his approach is so underplayed and profoundly sad, lost at times, we feel for him even when we are led to understand his condition is fatal regardless. Watts is all-out powerful, and anyone who can recall her beginnings in grade-Z horror films will certainly see a strong actress here: to see her receive the news of her husband's death early on is a stand-alone (as an equally good Clea duVall looks on, horrified), haunting moment. Del Toro, on the other hand, has an incredible, unique way of communicating his great inner torment through little more than his sleepy eyes; I've never seen acting this subtle yet moving. Even though he's done something clearly horrible, we care more for him because of his absolute, sincere change: this is an essentially good man who made a wrong turn and has a lifetime to pay for it. 21 GRAMS is a very strong movie, but at times, it comes too close to becoming too pessimistic to watch; however this is only a slight quibble.

This was definitely one of those films that you either get up and leave the cinema after 10 minutes or, as in our case, give it the benefit if the doubt saying that "it must get better soon", when in fact you get to the end of the film and wish you had gone with your first instincts to leave at the beginning! Someone before said that the plot was muddled - major understatement - hard to follow, very difficult to understand! Very quiet at the end of the film as there was nobody that understood why they were still there! No-one was talking about the film as they were left speechless - not by the terrific content but by the trash that they had just sat through! Not one of Mr Penn's greatest hits!

I went into the theatre with great anticipation to see 21 Grams. I admire the talents of Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, and was anxious to see Naomi Watts. All of them gave very good performances, as did Melissa Leo. However, for me, the film as a whole, was a colossal failure and disappointment. In a nutshell, is any other film's narrative so badly fractured that you don't even care about the various dramas/melodramas played out: divorce, failed rehabilitation, the loss of a husband and two innocent children in a car accident, etc. etc...you just view everything with a detached confusion, and you're left outraged that you lost any opportunity to connect with the story and the fine acting because of the pretentious, heavy-handed direction. (I never considered myself a great fan of Clint Eastwood, but compare this movie's narrative to that of Mystic River. In Mystic River, you care so much about the three main characters, and all of the supporting players -- the theme(s) are disturbing and compelling enough, and the director allows you to know the characters to a great extent as both the mystery and suspense build to a crescendo. In Grams, you have none of that --you are just jerked around, maybe to hide how ridiculous the story would be if presented more conventionally?) To this point, I have seen no other film(s) by this director. He may indeed be talented, as perhaps it takes a talent to misfire so badly on a film. And, I do not mind a non-linear device if it serves the story. In Memento, this device works because the sudience is processing the mystery as the main charcter himself is. The non-linear projection also heightens the plot and irony of Pulp Fiction. In Grams, it felt like the scenes were shot in whatever order (that's ok), and than the director numbered them, and threw them into a hat for the order they would be presented to the audience. As such, the movie lost any sense of continuity with the themes and the characters. It made for a singularly frustrating movie-going experience. A majority of critics have praised this film as both intelligent and respecting the same intelligence from the audience. I'm sorry, but is it audience participation when the questions you are compelled to ask are on the order of: "When did this happen?" "Is that the same lady?" "Did she change her mind?" "Why did she change her mind?" "When will this pretentious exercise be over?" Speaking for myself, this movie was a terrible misfire, and the directing style robbed us of any chance to connect with the characters and the themes he was trying to present. Instead, I was angry that I could not enjoy the performances (especially Watts'), as the movie had already lost me so much earlier. By the time we get to Penn's ending narration (a la American Beauty?), I just laughed at the pretentiousness, and almost wanted to cry about all of the lost opportunities to make a decent film that you cared about. Somehow, 21 Grams made imdb's top 250 of all time. For me, it may not have been one of the Top 250 of 2003.

'21 Grams' tells of a number of loosely interlinked characters in an achronological fashion, jumping backwards and forwards over their stories. There can be reasons for doing this: for example, to reveal the plot in a way that offers an extra kick, or to enable the plot to conclude with a scene from the middle of the story that gains impact from the viewer's prior acquaintance with what happens next. Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' justified its own complex plot structure on both of these grounds. But in the case of this film, I couldn't see how telling the story in such a broken way was supposed to add anything; and the fact that most of the leading characters possess a death wish (or at least, very little will to go on living) hardly aided my emotional involvement. At times, the film appeared to be shaping into a story about the possibility (or otherwise) of redemption; but it never quite grew into anything more the harrowing tale of a number of people who suffer and (in some cases) die. The pretentious voice-over from Sean Penn's character that ends the film (and accounts for its title) felt to me like a desperate (and failed) attempt to inject some meaning into a movie strangely devoid of it. That said, the acting is good, and the film is undoubtedly skilfully made. But "people die" is not, in itself, an adequate or interesting unifying theme.

I hated this movie. The first 30 minutes jumped between characters and time periods without any regard for flow. There seemed to be no connection between the characters other than the fact that they were shown together in the final scenes. When the connection was finally made, there was really no more story to be told, but there was 90 minutes left in the movie. ARGH!!!!!!! It was excruciating. The three of us who saw it (including one HUGE fan of Amores Perros) were all extremely relieved to be out.

Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, becomes with " 21Grams" a master craftsman that can push psychological boundaries and proves that to understand the Americans, you don't have to be one. And very often foreign directors that tackle American psyche do so in an intelligent and often very accurate and sensible way. Even though this film could have had characters from any country. Of course this is the case with the director of this brilliant film. I had to see it twice under very different circumstances and both times i left with a profound satisfaction of watching a great film. The work of Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro , Naomi Watts and Charlotte Gainsbourg is superb. Overall for me, the best film of 2003

If you haven't seen many movies you might enjoy 21 grams. Otherwise you are likely to see straight through this rehashed plot. The only redeeming factor is the quality cinematography. 21 grams steals ideas from films like Magnolia and Memento. It tries to make a simple story about people who make their problems worse, interesting by reordering events in time. This is a popular fad in films these days which reminds me of choose your own adventure books, because this is how I imagine these films are created. Instead of providing real content the movie is a hodgepodge of gimmicks. A little life and death drama, some action, some mystery, some blood and guts give it a big budget -- Hey we've got a blockbuster. To top it off the 21 grams premise is weak and never developed and has very little to do with the rest of the film. You can leave this movie with the impression that you learned something about life, but just what was it? Instead watch Amores Perros a quality film by the same Director/Writer duo.

This movie has really been over-hyped and is a dragging account of the interleaving lives of a few people dealing with different difficult situations in their lives...Goes much on similar lines to Amores Perros so better watch Amores Perros and leave this one alone... Very very dissatisfied with the overall effect. Editing sequences differently and creating a collage doesn't mean that a great movie has been made. Somebody has to tell these directors that non-linear is not an equation for greatness. You first need to come up with something ingenious. Don't peep at the lives of these people...they are really nothing characters who are not sure what to do and who are jumping thoughts per second...Poor story,poor screenplay Acting,direction and editing are not to be blamed for this disaster