Rating: 
Summary: Great Directing And Awesome Performances.
Review: "21 Grams" is the film that proves that the genius announced with the arrival of "Amores Perros" by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu was no fluke, he is a born director with a wonderful eye for powerful cinema. With his English debut he presents a puzzle as film, exploring some of the same themes from "Amores Perros," loss, violence, a mix of sex and emotional longing. The performances by Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro are superb and should be studied by fresh talent looking for films to watch. The screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga (who also wrote "Amores Perros") is a brilliant work of drama and truth with characters that feel raw and real, the words leap off the screen and this drama is special because it isn't afraid to share ideas, fears and beliefs. The cinematography by another hot new talent, Rodrigo Prieto (currently working with Oliver Stone on "Alexander") is stunning, he shoots with the eye of a painter and like Vitorrio Storaro uses light to create images of hypnotic quality. The only complaint here which keeps the movie from achieving true greatness is the editing structure which has made the movie popular for the way it presents it's story in a jumbled fashion. Things from the end are thrown in at the beginning and things from the beginning into the middle and so on, this takes away from the over-all affect because you're trying more to keep up and connect scenes than actually feeling the full impact of the film's ideas and messages. This is not to say the movie sucks, the directing is virtuoso work and Iñarritu directs with the kind of passion and poetic energy he displayed in his debut (the dedication at the end of the film is quite beautiful). With the editing put aside this is a powerful, memorable movie with images and performances that will stay in your memory. "21 Grams" displays the best in directing and acting, a must for people looking for the kind of passionate filmmaking so rare in today's movie scene.
Rating: 
Summary: The best acted movie of 2003.
Review: "21 Grams" is a movie of overwhelming power and drama, told in a compelling fashion by director Inarritu.
Much has been said about the kaleidoscopic, jigsaw puzzle-like storytelling technique used in this film, but it works flawlessly.
Briefly and reduced to absurdity, Sean Penn plays a man with a diseased heart, Naomi Watts plays a happy mother of two with a seriously dark past, and Benicio Del Toro plays a religious fanatic ex-con. I dare not tell you more, because one of the joys of this film is figuring it out the true sequence of events on your own.
These three strangers end up together (you know that from the beginning, given the way the story is told), but being only given snippets of information, in an artful, non-chronological and piece-meal manner, lends extraordinary suspense to the film; you feel guilty even pressing pause. We're talking Hitchcock levels of suspense here...you NEED to know how it's going to end."Incendiary" is an adjective often used to describe an acting performance; you will gasp at Naomi Watts here. I sat slack-jawed and fully amazed. I never knew she could do something like this, and she will surpass your every expectation. Sean Penn gave the two best performances of the year, here and "Mystic River". They're both career performances, in a career full of them. He's making a strong case for being our greatest living actor. Those who think I'm overstating the obvious, consider starting with Spicoli from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", and then imagining roles in "Falcon and The Snowman", "Carlito's Way", "Casualties of War", "Dead Man Walking", "At Close Range"...and ending up in 2003 with those two films mentioned above. Few actors could match that range with that quality, for over two decades straight. I was not prepared for this film. I was far better than I thought it was going to be. It's the type of movie you want every person who enjoys film and filmmaking to see. You will tell others about it. You will want to talk about it.
Set aside a night to watch this, I implore you. If youv'e read this far, this is the type of movie for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark and confusing
Review: This movie highlights three people--a man who needs a heart transplant in order to live, a woman whose husband and 2 daughters have been run over, and the ex-con turned born-again Christian who accidentally ran over them. It is full of angst, flashbacks, and good acting, but it is all very dark and the constant switching from character to character and past to future to present is all a bit overwhelming. According to many of the other reviews, the movie left many viewers in awe of the artistic merits and message of the film, but it simply left me confused and depressed!
Rating:
Summary: Postmodern Work of Art
Review: This is how a postmodern film should be made. As regards the cast, 21 Grams made me fall in love with Naomi Watts. Del Toro and Penn are equally powerful in their performances. An excellent film for the mature brain.
Rating:
Summary: chilling
Review: 21 Grams provides a chilling experience of love, loss, revenge, and deceit.
the film is sorrowful and depressing, making for an emotional trip for the viewer...the acting is superb and the lessons to be learned from this film must not go overlooked.....for example, must we be understanding of naomi watts' character in her need for revenge after she has lost her husband and children?
this film leaves many questions and mysteries and is a tremendous learning experience overall
Rating: 
Summary: confusing pyle of nothing
Review: This movie tries to be trendy by using flash-forward, flash-back chronology but it fails miserably. I suspect the producers figured the storyline was so weak, they had to do something to make the picture captivating.
I kept thinking it was going to come to some meaningful ending that ties everything together, but that doesn't happen and you're left with a bunch of confusing stuff that means nothing.
Rating:
Summary: 21,000 fragemented shards
Review: 21 grams is a movie style has been done before, three seperate lives being laced together by circumstances. However, what is different is the way the story is told. The fragmented pieces of the script is thrown out, at the viewer, in such disarray you end up spending more time trying to figure out the order of events instead of the story's content/depth. Sean Penn portays a man that is dying from a failing heart and Benicio Del Torro is an ex-conman who is struggling with religion. Both actors give wonderful heart felt performances, however it is Naomi Watts who really gives the heart wrenching, tortured performance as a mother who is grieving for her lost husband and daughters while falling back into old habits (drug additction). The donor of the heart, the price of redemption and forgiveness moves the characters into obvious intwinement. However, even with the star studded cast the constant jarring of scenes leaves one impatient for the final piece to fall, which by that time has reduced the movie to a rambling jumble.
Rating:
Summary: so cool
Review: I've never seen a movie more pretentious than this. I can't handle it past 30 minutes. There are too many close-ups on Sean Penn showing how cool he smokes a cigarette. Get over yourselves people.
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing film which hides a simple story
Review: It is very interesting to be discovering little by little what is this film about. You see people in a huge number of situations and it is somewhat confusing seeing how Sean Penn's health (Paul Rivers) is going better and worse by the second, not knowing which is past and which is before past. I am really getting more impressed in every movie Penn does. One of the best actors of the beginning of the century.
On the other part, Benicio de Toro and Naomi Watts make plain characters. Del Toro is an annoying ex-convinct now playing as a fellow christian and Watts an annoying mother now playing as a drug-addict.
But the thing goes really bad when you discover all the truth. The movie is only a trick to hide a very simple story of a double vengeance and you realize the movie could be cut to less than 70 minutes if you put scenes in a row.
So the movie remains at average as the way to tell the story is superb but the story itself has no kick. And the DVD's got nothing else to offer you.
Rating:
Summary: Not all that
Review: I felt a bit let down and disappointed with this film, having brought my respect for Inarritu close to deification after 'Amores Perros'. This film was not close to his first. However, avoiding comparisons and taking the film on it's own merits (?), this was fundamentally a Lego-built film that followed the standard plot blueprint, but given a veneer of credibility by means of a broken timeline. But the non-linear nature of the editting was merely a conceit and had no effect on the essence of the storyline ('Memento', anyone?). The acting was, admittedly, first-rate and it's good to see three top-class actors vying for the limelight, with each holding it in their own way, but their input acted only as a prop to an average script rather than lift this film to loftier heights.
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