21 Grams

Rating:
Summary: overated drivel
Review: The director's first film was about a car accident which affected the lives of three main characters. This film is about a car accident which affects the lives of the three main characters.

First off lets admit that the film has some great acting performances from the three main leads with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts being impressive.

However the film is simply annoying. It is not structured as a straight linear narrative. Rather what happens is that the film is cut into a large number of fragments and each fragment is then jumbled around and played in a random order. The film thus requires a mild amount of effort to work out who is who and to rebuild the narrative struture. This mildly unusual approach cannot however hide the fact that the film is basically an overblown melodrama which depends on the chaotic presentation to hide that.

If we look at its elements it consists of a number freaky and bizaree plot elements. A man who has a heart transplant developing a relationship with the wife of the donor. A ex-convict who has redemed himself through religion but is the subject of a freak accident. Their lives interact and tragedy ensures.

If one looks in retrospect at what happens the characters by and large, are self absorbed, unlovely and stupid. The somewhat artificial plot is meant to hide this from us and suggest that the characters are motivated by the extreme tragedy of their lives. The use of hand held cameras and somewhat overexposed filming again is a means to suggest that somehow this is all very interlectual or important in some way. A tiresome way to spend an afternoon watching this stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Film With Awesome Acting
Review: "21 Grams" is one of the best films of 2003 and has some of the best acting.The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards for
Best Actress:Naomi Watts & Best Supporting Actor:Benicio Del Toro.Sean Penn probably would have gotten a nomination here if he hadn't won Best Actor for "Mystic River".The movie is about three people.Paul Rivers (Penn),Cristina Peck (Watts),and
Jack Jordan (Del Toro).Paul is a terminally ill college professor in need of a heart transplant.Cristina is a housewife greiving the death of her husband and two daughters.While Jack is a born again convict who just made a big mistake.Through the story all of their lives are intertwined marvelously and sometimes confusingly.The movie is told in sequence but frequently goes out of sequence to show you stuff that will happen later in the movie.Everyone in the film gives some performances of their careers including Naomi Watts whose performance is unforgettable.One of the best films of 2003,go see
"21 Grams".

Rating:
Summary: 21 trash
Review: This film is a perfect waste of time. The one redeeming quality it holds is that the film makers assume the audience is intelligent! The pretentiousness of the film makers is all over the place. It is a perfect film for sycophantic movie goers that wear black clothes all the time and smoke Gitane cigarettes, and they also happen to be film majors at Univesity.

Rating:
Summary: Flawless
Review: This movie is absolutely flawless in every way. I could type a huge review telling you why you should see this, but I won't. I'd rather not spoil ANYTHING.

It is gripping and powerful. Horrific and endearing. Ugly and yet beautiful. One of the best movies I have ever seen.

10/10. 5 out of 5 stars. A+. Perfect. See it.

Rating:
Summary: Randomness Yields to Order
Review: The most telling moment in Alejandro González Iñárritu's moving 21 Grams comes in a lunchroom exchange between Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) and Christina Peck (Naomi Watts), in which Paul, a mathematics professor, observes, "there are so many things that have to happen for two people to meet."

Paul's line is the key to the film's non-linear, disjunctive, dyschronic narrative style, which simulates the routine randomness and disorder of life, the contingencies of existence, the sheer improbability of any one particular thing ever coming to pass - over and against Iñárritu's spiritual subtext, which gives the movie its title and which buzzes insistently beneath the main events and performances. How many movies - Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors comes to mind - compel the viewer to reflect on the theodicy question, the existence of evil in the world despite the presumed goodness of a God? This is courageous filmmaking.

Before the first hour is out, the main narrative lines have clarified, ambiguities begin to sort themselves out, and, abetted by chance, Paul has manipulated the story into an intense tale of odd obsession. The irregular narrative strategy also provides an element of mystery, and the story remains intriguing and unpredictable right through an ultimately well-foreshadowed conclusion.

The accomplished cast delivers performances that are among the best of their careers. Penn, Benicio Del Toro as an ex-con come to Jesus and on the rebound, and, in particular, Watts as a bereaved mother and wife whose questionable past becomes a doubtful source of solace, offer rangy, moving, multi-dimensional interpretations of complex human beings as they are sucked through the defining, harrowing, moments of their lives. Watts displays an utter absence of movie-star vanity in permitting herself to be wholly disfigured by overpowering emotions. Del Toro continues to challenge himself, and amaze us, in each of his distinctive, shaded performances. Penn's acting here is more restrained, more subtle than his superb Jimmy Markum of Mystic River.

I docked 21 Grams a star for the patness of its conclusions. Iñárritu brings everything together too tidily and to too calm a center - wouldn't so disjunctive a reality have had a few wires and transistors hanging out of the chassis? (And I would have enjoyed at least a dollop of DVD commentary as to how this film came to pass. The disc is a blank, however, apart from the film, scene access, and setup.) Even so, this is a very brave piece of writing, direction, and performance - I would have added "production," but Iñárritu produced his own film, for surely no one else would have permitted him to realize his very particular vision of time, contingency, and spirituality. 21 Grams is not a picture for every taste, but it is a strong, challenging antidote to the mass of pulp that passes for popular cinema.

Rating:
Summary: 21 grams = 2.1
Review: 21 grams = 2.1 hours of my life that I won't get back. This movie didn't accomplish what I thought it would. It had all of the ingredients for a good movie, but somehow it didn't gel for me.

Rating:
Summary: Mundane Story, Amature Presentation, Good Acting
Review: This is a run-of-the-mill story line chopped up into little pieces and pasted back together again in a feable attempt to make it artistic. There is the standard introspective stuff and the not so subtle question of God's existance so many people think is still provactive...blah, blah, blah, so what. Another problem is the characters. While not bad people, they are just not very likable or interesting. Clocking in at two hours and five minutes it seemed three hours and fifty five minutes as the story develops at a snail's pace. As others have said there is some decent acting here, especially by Naomi Watts so I'll offer two stars for that, otherwise this is just another average flick. Quentin Tarantino mastered this presentation style and it is interesting and well done in his films, but I'll be glad when this fad dies because in the hands of lesser talented directors like Alejandro González Iñárritu it is just annoying.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Good!
Review: I have to admit that when I rented "21 Grams", I wasn't expecting much. First, the lead actress is Naomi Watts, who never really has impressed me, despite the award nominations that she has received. Plus in the film trailers I got the impression this was more a spiritual/super-natural story. But in reality, it is a very well done mystery and romance story.

Sean Penn shines, as he usually does, as the mathematician who receives a heart transplant from Watts' husband, who along with their two daughters are run down by a truck driven by Benecio del Toro. The story is confusing at first as snippets from the end of the story are cut into the early part of the story. I found myself wondering what was going on for about the first 20 minutes or so. But as the story progresses, it really begins to make sense (I probably should have watched it a second time to see what I missed in those 20 minutes).

The viewer gets to see how a transplant victim wants to know about the person who donates his heart and what can happen when that quest is pursued. It's a complex story that is well acted (even by Ms. Watts, I have to say) and well told. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Drains you
Review: Heavy movie with the "Pulp Fiction" structure. Very watchable for the performances. In response to "ineurope"'s comments below, Penn did not win the Oscar for this movie. He won for "Mystic River."

Rating:
Summary: Just goes to show how worthless the Academy awards are
Review: A movie like this comes along and it just blows away the rest. Of course Sean Penn should have won for this movie and not the dreadful Mystic River - the book however was brilliant. All I can say is this movie was powerful with an amazing storyline and superb acting.