Rating: 
Summary: best film of 2003, by far.
Review: this is as good as it gets. by far the best acting ensemble ever put together.the film is just perfect on all conceivable levels. don't miss out on this one.
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: Heavy, Heavy 21 Grams
Review: For those who saw Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's first hit movie, rough and hectic "Amores Perros", will find his fragmented jigsaw style -- this time in an even more scattered fashion -- familiar. "21 Grams" is a more intimate and even darker and more depressing drama, with very few things positive in it, message-wise or otherwise -- save the superb acting performances of the three leads. Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro are especially convincing as the grieving mother and widow on the verge of re-falling deep into drug web and the thief-turned-religious man. The profound tragedy of theirs has its repercussions which involve another man (Sean Penn). Filmed as if with an amateur camera, "21 Grams" is not as enthralling as it could be, which is rather good in a weird way, since any more emotional involvement in the film might turn often a difficult watch for a viewer to something unbearable. There is a lot of good films about human nature (and probably better than this one) out there, but go for it if you like great acting.
Rating: 
Summary: The movie confusion personified!
Review: I know this movie has great acting. I am NOT arguing that fact. However, the chronology is a spaghetti of backwards threads. Tom Clancy is a master of telling stories with many intricate threads masterfully woven into a COHERENT master story. This is a case study in bad editing. I wanted to enjoy this movie and its actors. I kept searching for a theme to follow. I was utterly disappointed. The story is told backwards. How can you develop a character backwards? I wanted to feel for these characters. I wanted to understand these characters emotions and motivations. I was lost from the very beginning. I remained interested - guessing that the director was soon going to reveal the main theme. Nope. The movie is a dramatic well-acted flop. Do not waste your money. 2 stars only for acting. ZERO stars to the editing choices!
Rating: 
Summary: Life goes on ...
Review: When people say that, it's usually meant to be somewhat encouraging. The point of the saying being that tomorrow is a new day. I'm not sure that people consider EXACTLY how painful that life "going on" can be. This film explores that. It's a film about how 3 different people, all connected in some way to a tragic car accident, deal with the guilt and pain of their lives continuing to move forward ... even when they can't bring themselves to move along with it. The acting is absolutely SUPERB. Sean Penn, realistically, could have won an Oscar for BOTH Mystic River and 21 Grams. He's just OUTSTANDING. Naomi Watts was also BRILLIANT as a wife and mother whose life is just DESTROYED when her family is killed. Benico Del Toro, I'm convinced, is one of the most under-appreciated actors of the modern film world. Even the second tier cast was outstanding. Melissa Leo, for example, was incredible in the way she played a Lady MacBeth-ish wife to Del Toro's character. The directing is wonderful. The emotion that Alejandro Iñárritu is able to get from his cast is staggering. Its emotional impact on his audience is mind-blowing. You'll find yourself tearing up watching Naomi Watts desperately trying to piece her shattered life back together. I was a little confused in the beginning by the out-of-sequence method that was used in the films editing, but it breaks helps to give the audience a small emotional break (as another reviewer stated, this is a REALLY dark, sad film) and also makes for a better payoff as you fit the pieces of the film together to reveal the whole picture. I can't possibly recommend this enough. It is horribly depressing, but it's also an absolutely brilliant work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Suicidally Depressing...
Review: A well-crafted, brilliantly acted movie.
Unfortunately, it is also hideously dismal, and with no moral message to offer which would justify such unredeemable and violent gloominess.
This movie makes "Sid and Nancy" seem like a comedy.
Watch it once and you'll stare numbly at the floor for a few hours when it is finished; watch it twice and you're friends and family will have to call the authorities and put you on suicide watch.
No thanks.
Gimme my 2 hours back.
Rating:
Summary: THE WEIGHT OF IT ALL
Review: 21 Grams is a hard-edged gritty, visual poem. It's a film that plays like a hysterical musical composition of raw emotion and lyric. Each performance is truly captivating and the director's merciless nonlinear structure adds volumes to the heightened intensity of the story. It's amazing to be glued to a film in which you're always trying to figure out where you are in it. It's a risky narrative move because many people would easily be turned off from a device like this--but Inarritu is a mad composer of slick, realistic, spiritually absorbing masterpieces (check out Amores Perros if you don't believe me) The film is centered around three characters whose lives are forever changed in the event of tragedy. Sean Penn is his usual brilliant best as a math professor with heart failure, Naomi Watts is equally astonishing as a ex-drug addicted wife and mother suffering terrible loss, and Benicio Del Toro as a Jesus-freak ex-con is gripping to watch on screen has he battles his inner and outer demons. 21 Grams is riveting in the numerous issues it tackles without ever being preachy or verbose. What do our lives weigh? How do we survive immense loss? Are we chosen to take lives and give life? Many films claim to examine the core of our huamnity but never has a film like 21 Grams done such an amazing job of examining how mysteriousthat human core actually is.
Rating:
Summary: 21 Grams (2003)
Review: Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Clea Duvall.
Running Time: 125 minutes.
Rated R for violence, language, sexual sitations, and drug use. As with films such as "Mulhouland Drive" and "Requiem for a Dream", this somber, intense film will be disturbing and unenjoyable for some, while profound, amazing, and powerful for others. Director Iñárritu succeeds at creating a dark, unique film that does not present itself in chronological order, but scatters the film's main plot points throughout, only for the final puzzle to be revealed in an extremely metaphoric last question. Sean Penn gives his second-best performance of the year (his explosive role in "Mystic River" earned him his first Oscar win) as a terminally-ill heart patient who is in search of a transplant. Benicio Del Toro stars as the convict-turned Jesus freak who has proclaimed his life to God, only to be a part of the culprit of a misfortunate accident. Naomi Watts gives her best performance to date as the grief-stricken woman who has tragically lost her family due to a traffic accident, only to find hope in the most unique and surprising of individuals. The horrific twist of fate and the events proceeding the tragic accident is magically scripted, placed specifically in certain places so the film is more beautiful and enigmatic. "21 Grams" is a portrayal of how one event can change everything for three individuals, the emotional roller-coaster that tragedy brings to all of its victims, and questions the very reason for the existence of mankind. It is not a film to be embraced by all; it is a motion picture that some will understand and some will shun--but for those who truly enjoy film at its distinct, resounding finest--"21 Grams" is a visual (not very auditory, for there is not much presence of a musical score) experience that will tear at the heart, overwhelm the mind, and interrogate the soul. The best of its kind--if it fits into a genre--since "Memento".
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Acting
Review: I had a little trouble following this one at first, but once I got into it I was hooked. It was so real (like Traffic) but so personal. Watts really was strong here, but so was the rest of the cast (Penn etc). I can't really describe this film in words because it was so choppy, but I can say that it is a definite must see for dramatic lovers.
Rating:
Summary: Another hit for Penn
Review: Sean Penn is one of the most talented actors in Hollywood, and any film of his is a great one. The plot was great, jumped around a timeline without warning, but not impossible to follow. Great story of how lives can become entwined amidst tragedy. Not the absolute best film of the year, but close.
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