Rating: 
Summary: Death and grief
Review: This is a riveting, unsettling and thought provoking movie. The first half of the movie appears to be confusing, disorientating and even irritating, as it interwines the stories of the three main characters (Paul-Sean Penn, Cristina-Naomi Watts, and Jack-Benicio Det Toro) in an apparently chronologically random fashion. However, it does force the viewers to actively think and try to make sense of what they are presented with. A horrific car accident brings the lives of the three characters together. Paul, the dying maths professor, becomes obsessed with the wife of the architect(Cristina)whose heart was transplanted to him. His love for Cristina almost drives him to commit murder, but being a dying man himself, he has a much deeper understanding of what death means than Cristina. Cristina, who has a reckless past asscciated with illicit drug use, decompensates in the face of intense grief following the loss of her husband and two daughters. She becomes irrational,self-neglecting,uses drugs again,is full of anger and is obsessed with revenge. Jack, an ex-con man and a re-born Christian, is overwhelmed by guilt and anger towards God for his betrayal of him, after he has accidentally killed Cristina's husband and two daughters. He desparately struggles to redeem himself. All three main characters, especially Naomi Watts, gives superb, very honest, bold performances, letting out a lot of raw and powerful emotions. This movie is a must see for anyone who is facing grief and loss issues.
Rating: 
Summary: a very good film in a very dark and heavy mood
Review: very good casting, directing and wonderfully performed actors and actresses. dark, cold, wet and hopelessly miserable. the editing may be a bit too random but resulted in an even deeper feelings casted on the viewers. filmcritic.com gave this movie 4-1/2 stars which i think was very appropriate. naomi watts performed a role that was with so much real personal feelings and was about 100 times better than that shallow performance done by berry in the 'monster ball'. if that actress could get one oscar simply by her so-so performance, then naomi watts in this film should have gotten two. well, good timing and bad timing in a competition really decided for everything. when there's no other stronger scripts or stronger performances in certain year's oscar competition, then even a luke-warm performance by a so-so actor would get an oscar. that's the only after-thought when i finished this wonderful yet too dark film.
Rating:
Summary: I'm still out of my own skin
Review: I'm still talking about this movie 5 months after I saw it, I've only seen it once but have been tempted to see it over and over whenever I go to the movies. I saw Amores Perros (Alejandro González IÑárritu) when it first came out and I just thought it was a perfect film, it had this rough edge that seemed to just create the same affect to the audience and as soon as I heard that (Alejandro González IÑárritu) was coming out with a new film I was just already on top of it. Then the actors (Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Naomi Watts) came into view and I was just extatic I knew it was something to watch. The film hit's you from the minute it starts to the moment it finishes. I caught the last show when I went and took some friends with me - they (seriously) had to throw us out because we couldn't find the feeling to get up from our seats, it left us numb and truely speechless. It's such a beautiful and powerful story with all the meaning it needs. I've recommended it to so many and have all come back with positive reviews and sleepless nights. It's deep and I know some people can't handle deep storytelling but it's a must see for anyone looking to be affected. So I recommend see it and if you like, recommend to everyone. I applaud the director and writer once again for a beautiful job well done. It's such a heavy and undescribable concept and when you finally reach to it it's incredible beacuse it's light as a feather but you don't want to let go (if it makes sense). Anyway bottom line I've never been affected this hard by a film, that tells you something.
Rating:
Summary: 3 engaging plots create one story
Review: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are the three main characters of this harrowing story. The film opens with a bloody scene involving the three of them. The rest of the movie shows how their 3 very separate lives have tragically joined to bring them to that scene.Watts plays a young wife and mother of two girls, whose drugging days are over. Her family is taken away from her in one horrible accident. Penn plays a man in need of a heart transplant, smoking cigarettes even while on oxygen. He is being taken care of by his wife with whom he has marital problems due to cheating. She hopes to get pregnant by him while he is still alive -- possibly for only one more month. Del Toro plays a born-again Christian doing social work, telling of his own past life of crime to young people to steer them straight. He also has a young family. The relationships and realty of these 3 people are well-played and depicted. You are kept on the edge of your seat as you discover how they handle the tragedies that befall them -- whether they have a hand in it or not --- and how it all culminates.
Rating:
Summary: Penn, Del Toro and Watts Set The Screen On Fire!
Review: '21 Grams' tells the complex interconnected story of how three lived intersect both tragically and redemtively following a car accident. Paul (Sean Penn; Mystic River) is a terminally ill math professor, in desperate need of a heart transplant. Christine (Naomi Watts; The Ring) is a former drug addict, whose just now getting clean -- with the help of her family. Jack (Benecio Del Toro; Traffic) is a born-again-Christian, who was an ex-convict, now preaching the Gospel to others. In a tragic car accident, all three of their lives will be forever touched. Jack is driving home from work when he fails to see a man with his two kids walking, he accidentally kills them. The family happens to belong to Christine, who just happens to be recovering from drugs. Then there is Paul, who just gets Christine's husbands heart. '21 Grams' power lies in it's acting, no lie there. Sure, it does have some kind of twist like 'Memento,' however, '21 Grams' is a much better film for many diffrent reasons. The main one: the acting. Benecio Del Toro lights up the screen as Jack. Some of his most powerful acting ever. If you thought his performance in 'Traffic' was powerful, you haven't seen nothing yet. Naomi Watts turns in a solid performance as a grieving widow, who loses both her spouse and her two children. Sean Penn turns in another Oscar-caliber performance as a terminally ill math professor, whose own life is in termoil with a unhappy marriage. All in all, '21 Grams' was shunned at the Oscars (Del Toro and Watts deserved their nominations, and above all deserved the Awards) for nominations in both Best Picture and Best Director (Alejandro González Iñárritu) -- not to mention the fact that Penn should've had TWO nominations for Best Actor (this and his win for 'Mystic River'.) 2 Academy Award Nominations
Actor In A Supporting Role -- Benicio Del Toro {"Jack Jordan"}
Actress In A Leading Role -- Naomi Watts {"Cristina Peck")
Rating: 
Summary: A "best of tragedies" with noone at the helm..
Review: First off, it's becoming rather tiring these days to see that any director aspiring to make an "artsy" film resorts to the non-linear direction. To clear up any misunderstandings in advance, there's nothing wrong per se with using this technique. But there should be a point to it: there should either be a clever twist hiding behind all the back and forths or the choice of going non-linear should make the film more entertaining in an obvious way. But in "21 grams" neither of these objectives is achieved. There is no twist and had this story been told linearly the result (positive or negative) would've been exactly the same. But there's actually more working against "21 grams" than for it: throughout the whole film i was left wondering about what the premise is. Is it a film about death? One about god? One about fate, synchronicity and the "chancy" lives we lead? One about the complexity of human emotions? Or is it actually a film about life as lived by humans and the bizzare or "funny" choices they make? The problem is that it's a bit of everything with other touches thrown in for good measure. This problem becomes more annoying when you consider that all these themes (non exluded) are important and vast enough to make a film on its own for each. If you have 2 hours at your disposal to directorily "comment" on all of them you wind up with a film that says -ultimately- not much but which SEEMS to be saying a lot. But when you try to accurately answer the question "what is the message or the premise" they're conveying at us here you cant come up with a pinpointing answer. This is basically the equivalent of a film as if it had been made by a trickster. Loads of tricks to impress those only with eyes, but very little for those that employ cerebrum function with eye movement: the non-linear depiction, the fact that a variety of highly unlikely tragedies are thrown together, tied hastingly in a plot that doesn't go in any particular direction and finished off with tons of overacting to compensate for the inadequacy of the plot. It's not all a bleak sum though. The acting (overacting as it was) is indeed good, because in a perverse way this was the only thing that could've saved this film. Every actor here does his best to elevate this "not much" into "something" and in the end it's the performances that stay with you, not the movie itself. Speaking of a weak plot i could ask many questions, but I'll ask only one because precisely this question made it a "miss" for me in a definite way: in the film the character of N.Watts finds out that the man she's started an affair with is actually the recipient of her husbands heart. Yet she "marrily" goes on with the affair after only a small tantrum that lasts a mere few hours. Exactly what are the odds of that is what i'd really like to know.. Not only that, but only shortly before, during the funeral of her loved ones she declares that she doesnt want to even press charges against the guy responsible and yet, as a complete and unexplained transformation takes place, she winds up wanting to murder him. Go figure. To sum it all up, this will easily be a film that'll be widely praised, because people tend to be stunned when they are visually impressed even if there's no premise hidden under the spectacle. It's an old trick in the art of movie-making, it has worked 1000 times before and will work another 1000 times in the future. It's in fact a trick that works in many other levels of life just as effectively. Knowing that I'm totally going against the tide here with what I've said, i'll say also this: this film tries to be uncharacteristic of Hollywood and yet it manages to be flawed in the way many Hollywood films are: loads of eye-candy but precious little else. Lastly, this trivia about the 21 grams in the end had to do with what exactly anywhere in the film? Oh well, i could go on and on but the point is made. At least i hope so...
Rating: 
Summary: A bad DVD-
Review: While this was a pretty good movie, but for some reason, the studio thought it'd be a good idea to remove the special features from this release. This is taken straight from IGN's dvd page (while I hate IGN, they're usually reliable): March 04, 2004 - We're not sure why, unless a special edition is coming, but Universal Pictures has removed the extras for the film 21 Grams, starring Sean Penn, Oscar nominee Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. The film ison March 16 for $26.98. Imagine Quentin Tarantino trying to be serious, and you have 21 Grams. It's about three people: a dying mathematician (Penn) in a loveless marriage, a happily-married suburban housewife (Watts) and an ex-convict who has found God (Del Toro). All three lead their separate lives until a terrible accident brings all three of them together. The film will be available in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS audio. There were two two featurettes: 21 Grams: In Fragments and The Making of 21 Grams. But now, Universal has removed all references to the featurettes on their media site. If we find out why, we'll let you know. ************************************** So unless a 2 disc special edition or something is coming out soon, I don't see getting this a priority.
Rating:
Summary: 2nd effort leaves me breathless
Review: There are certain movies out there that are extremely depressing, but one can not help themselves but want to see them more than one time. In 21 grams Gonzalez Inarritu excels past his 1st feature film Amores Perros. Although Amores Perros was a breakthrough of creativity in film it did not grab a hold on my mind and my heart like 21 grams does. Inarritu takes the idea of film making he used in Amores Perros and puts it to a story that should touch anyone that walks this earth. The movie is a social commentary on the fear of death, the coping with death, and being able to cope with the fact that this world is a place of chance and freak things, but that everyone musst go through this and be able to handle it. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are the standouts of the movie. Naomi Watts is stellar at times, but at other times it seemed that she was overacting. The first hour of 21 grams is some of the best film making that I have seen in some time, but the ladder 45 minutes seem to be a bit stretched out at times. Overall though the movie is one of the years ten best, which usually results in a pretty stellar film. Thumbs up to Inarritu for being able to put such powerful emotions to the screen.
Rating:
Summary: Best American film of 2003
Review: Too often, feel-good popcorn movies fill our cinematic diet. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film however, takes a vacation from that format, asking us to confront the coincidences and tragedies of real everyday life. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and although "21 Grams" is fictional, it is closer to real life for some than anything else around. Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts in particular are outstanding, while Sean Penn does admirably in his role as a well-meaning compassionate man whose own life is in flux. Inarritu's cameraman, Rodrigo Prieto is instrumental to the pulse of this somber, thrilling, intimate and unforgettable work. (Note: And find out "Why Vanilla Sky Tastes Better Than Ice Cream" only at...)
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable flic... but PAY ATTENTION!
Review: I hate those reviews of "eclectic" films that not only gush about how great the picture was, but take the time to belittle anyone who doesn't 'get it.' This is one of those films... but not one of those reviews. In fact, I'll offer a cautionary statement of a sort: If you couldn't stand "Memento" because of the fact that is runs (kind of) in reverse, then you might want to avoid "21 Grams." And I won't think you're either stupid, or a bad person. To continue with the "Memento" comparison, if "Memento" was like a ladder, in which the film started at the top, went down two rungs, climbed up one, stepped down two, climbed up one... and so on; then "21 Grams" is more like snippets of a slow-motion explosion. In reverse. And your job is to figure out what it is that exploded. I'll admit that my initial reaction to the discordant pace of the film was rather negative. But eventually, enough pieces start to come together that it all begins to make sense. And of course, the acting is superb... so even when I did feel rather confused about what was going on, I could at least enjoy the performances. Others have pointed out that it's almost impossible to give a synopsis of this film without giving away too much. In brief, Sean Penn plays a desparately-ill man who is very unhappily married to an English woman. Naomi Watts is a very happily married mother of two young girls, and Benicio del Toro (who won an Oscar for his role), plays a born-again, bible-quoting, fundamentalist, ex-con. How these people's lives become completely intertwined could have been done in the standard chronological way... but in the end, I thought that sometimes being able to see a little bit (and sometimes quite far) into the future, made for a fascinating film.
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