21 Grams

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT LISTEN TO THESE PEOPLE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Review: The right trailer can make any plodding, incoherent art film look like a thriller. The only reason this poorly written and impossible to believe peice of junk gets one star is the solid work of Naomi Watts, as usual Penn overacts and Del Toro is
completely incoherent. Like Traffic, the director believes he must use lens filters to make us feel the emotions of these hollow characters, it fails here, too. Apparently, Focus Features liked this film so much that they decided it stood fine on it's own on DVD, since there are no special features at all. I really wanted to hear the idiot responsibe for this 9th rate script and amateurish direction explain his "vision".

Rating:
Summary: More Than 21 Grams of Quality
Review: The producer of 2000's "Amores Perros" presents another film masterpiece. The three-time Oscar nominated "21 Grams" explores deeper into his unique creativity. Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu leads a talented cast and crew to complete this unforgettable experience. The plot is brilliant. The ensembe of three lives that come together for a life-changing accident blends perfectly. The writers force audiences to think more on the events and piecing every scene together. Future and past events being placed in various places offer a more unique intimate look into the characters' lives. The irony continually builds, keeping audiences paying attention to what actually happens and what actually is. Few other writers have mastered this technique this well. The drama builds as one tradegy adds to another. The conflict between their struggles and they keep every scene interesting: a man struggling to maintain his health after severe heart problems, a cocaine addict struggling to recover from the death of her husband and her two kids, and an ex-con struggling with his newfound Christianity. The graphic scenery offer a deeper look at their inner death threats.

Every actor offers their own sense of tradegy through their character and the film. Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro are brilliant in their Oscar nominated roles (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor). This brings them into more intimate roles that earns them tremendous respect as talented actors. Watts transforms her image for this role of a lifetime that explores her more serious side. Sean Penn is outstanding in his role as a heart transplant patient. This is only one film that proves that 2003 was his year as an actor. He continues to evolve as an outstanding actor, expecially within the last ten years.

"21 Grams" is a great powerdrama for those looking for something intense. This is sure to please audiences for many years to come. Inarritu's "Amores Perros" is also recommended for fans of "21 Grams".

Rating:
Summary: 21 Grams a powerhouse film
Review: this is one of the finest films i have seen an a while with outstanding performances by the entire cast.Naomi Watts and Sean Penn got the recognition and deservedly so but Benicio Del Toro was left out of the loop come oscar time which is in my opinion was just wrong.his performance as Jack Jordan,a recovering alcoholic and reformed hellraiser made me rethink problems i had had in the past.Jack's new found and unwavering belief in christ gets him through alot but his profound guilt over recent events is nearly his own end.a fine performance by all!

Rating:
Summary: Please!
Review: Like Lost in Translation, I guess this movie was "too artistic" for me. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this slow, dragging mess. The concept was good, however the presentation lacked a real plot. It reminded me a little bit of Pulp Fiction but not nearly as entertaining. It just dragged on and on and on. Please!

Rating:
Summary: A seminar in great acting
Review: If you are a young actor, or just love a well acted movie, you must check this film out. I cannot recall a movie were there were so many standout performances. As always, Sean Penn displays his usual nearly supernatural talent. Penn can do more with his eyes and expression than any actor I can think of, and his capacity for effective understatement is unparalleled. He can simply move the viewer wherever he wishes them to go effortlessly, and he is always a marvel to watch. Benicio Del Toro is tremendous as well, doing what he does best - bringing to life a certain tortured repression that always seems to brood a little too quietly behind his burning eyes.

For me, however, the delight came from watching the women, Naomi Watts as the grieving widow who serves as a catalyst in the films' intertwined lives; and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the wife of an ex-con, desperately trying to hold her life together. Naomi Watts is asked to carry a great deal of weight in this picture, and her raw pain and emotion really had me twisting in my seat in sympathy. She actually accomplished that rare feat that happens so seldom in movies: Her pain and grief didn't seem like acting at all - it seemed rather that cameras just happened to rolling while some terrible event was happening. She was absolutely amazing. My favorite piece of work, however, came from Charlotte Gainsbourg. With all the bigger names doing such great work around her, it is an easy role to overlook. Do yourself a favor and watch this woman take command of her role. Her portrayal of the ex-cons' wife, struggling to keep what little she has managed to salvage out of the world together, is simply heartbreaking. I wish Hollywood used more actresses like her. Ms. Gainsbourg is not a fashion model, nor is she beautiful in a high-cheekbone, pouty-lipped way. She is, instead, beautiful to watch because of her talent.

To tell you the truth, this type of character-based, dialogue-driven drama is not my usual meat. I like a good crime or action picture, big-Hollywood style. But when acting talent as displayed in this film comes to the table, one cannot help but pay attention. -Mykal Banta

Rating:
Summary: the existential weights
Review: an immensely stirring, emotional upheaval that takes the viewer through an amazing journey of souls. The viewer becomes engrossed in the disparate but intertwining concerns of the central characters and is compelled to explore the intense dimensions of their psychologies.

This is a uniquely stimulating film that rivets and edifies. It draws you into an intense vortex of emotions, tragedies and the occasional tinge of serendipity - such is life itself.

Tons of great performances make it a must see and easily eclipse any complaints of uni-dimensionality. Unlike any other film around.

Rating:
Summary: Definately worth a watch, although...
Review: ..the director chose to use his gimmicky (arty) effect of telling the story in fractured, out of sequence order. This effect, while used very effectively in his previous film, Amores perros (2000) served absolutely no purpose to this particular story. Now, that out of the way....
This is a film that I would highly reccommend, if only due to it's incredible acting from it's three lead stars and one spectacular job from a co-star. Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Torro are nothing less than mesmerizing in this film. This is high caliber acting folks, and being that we have 3 leads who have turned up the heat in one film, surely Hollywood will have to up the ante to ever match it. Again, there's a fourth actor, Melissa Leo, who plays Del Torro's wife, and to say that she chews the scenery and makes the most of her part would be an understatement. This woman gives an incredible performance in a small role, and sadly, she gets mentioned very little. I give her a 21 gram...I mean gun, salute.
It's been very common ,in the past ten years or so, for films to have the " multiple stories going on and they all somehow connect" factor. 21 Grams is also one of those, but, again, it's the acting that puts this film above most of the competition. The three stories here are dramatic and tragic, and are well written, very realistic and ultimately, powerfully effective. I personally believe that this film would have benefitted more told in a chronological order, but, the writing and the acting makes anything faulty about the film forgivable. I encourage viewers who appreciate great acting to watch this film as soon as possible. You will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: TOP NOTCH PERFORMANCES
Review: 21 Grams demonstrates 3 actors at the top of their game:

Sean Penn (who won the Oscar for 21 Grams), Benicio Del Torro (Oscar for Traffic) and Naomi Watts (Who has now been robbed TWICE out of an Oscar).

The performances in 21 GRAMS are the best you'll see. Each character has a depth rarely displayed on film. These performances are what make the movie memorable and a cut above the rest. You see the joy in their lives and in a flash, you see the dark side of their lives, the turmoil, the torn down and bared souls.

The movie plays like Pulp Fiction or Memento in the sense that it isn't told in chronological order. It jumps around the timeline of their lives, showing us their good sides before the events that destroy them and in a CUT, show the turmoiled people they will eventually become when the events all tie together, and then back again.

In favor of the movie, the scenes cut together nicely. The scenes make you wonder, make you question, what caused this? How do Paul Rivers (Penn) and Cristina Peck (Watts) come to know each other and become lovers? The scenes pose all the right questions and move the movie nicely.

My only problem was in the fact that I'm not sure that the mixed timeline storytelling may not have been necessary. In hindsight, after viewing the entire film, I'm not sure if the jigsaw puzzle of scenes wasn't just done IN AN ATTEMPT TO be cutting edge, Pulp Fictionish and OSCARISH??

The story could have just as easily been told in chronoligical order and held the exact same amount of weight and entertainment value.

Finally, for all the timeline jumping around and making you wonder this and that, 21 GRAMS was disappointing to me. When it was all said and done, I expected something more. 21 GRAMS had a ho-hum story, but acting performances that will blow you out of the water.

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding movie
Review: Film and video are the most powerful media tools ever created. For the most part, though, these tools are mainly used to make entertainment that rarely causes our brains to actual think or our emotions to truly get into gear. In part, this may be caused by our instinctive suspicion of any outside force that can disrupt or challenge the way we think and feel. "21 Grams" is a force to be reckoned with. Watching it will not entertain you as much as it will shake you up mentally and emotionally. It is a brilliant example of the power a movie is capable of producing.

The plot moves forward and backwards in time, but I found it very easy to follow.

The central characters are Paul [Sean Penn], a professor whose heart is literally giving out; Christina [Naomi Watts], a woman whose husband and two children are killed in a hit and run accident; and Jack [Benicio del Toro], a recovering alcoholic and born-again Christian, whose attempts to get his life together are wrecked when he accidentally runs over Christina's family with his truck. After this terrible event, a distraught Christina donates her brain-dead husband's heart. The recipient is Paul, who can not live without knowing whose heart he has. His investigation leads to the amazing intersection of the three characters' lives.

Director Inarritu is Mexican. He explored a similar theme in his brilliant and highly recommended "Amores Peros". [Note: Mexico produces some of the best movies on the planet.]

It is obvious that the cast related to the script. Penn and del Toro, as well as supporting players Charlotte Gainsborough and Melissa Leo, are brilliant. Penn's performance rivals the one he gave in "Mystic River". The world is lucky that he reneged on the promise he made several years ago to quit acting. Watts, however, is the real star of the picture. Whatever is beyond brilliant is what she is here. Hers is one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film.

Rating:
Summary: I liked it...
Review: I'm glad I didn't read any of the Amazon reviews prior to renting it. All of my reviewing predessors blabbed away the very element that makes this film so compelling. I won't do that. Sure, I was a bit baffled at the goings-on, but director Inarratu weaves a tapesty that results in a mind-blowing catharsis. This is one of those "full-circle" films with flash-backs, flash-forwards, and relies on the viewers ability of retention. The three leads are brilliant, and I take issue with a previous reviewer about Watts' character; grief affects people in different ways, and I thought her decisions were appropriate to the developments. Her performance was dead-on, as well as those of Penn and del Toro. I was very impressed. The film is grim and unpleasant with its subject matter. However, its ugliness is countered with daring honesty, something that many don't really ever think they'll have to deal with. Life, death, love, hope, desperation and redemption have rarely been examined so thoroughly on film. To say I loved this film would be like saying I loved a root canal; still, I felt that it was important, and extremely well presented. Once the power of the novocaine wears off, you find yourself thinking a lot about your own mortality. Unfortunately, the DVD offers no extras of any kind.