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21 Grams Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 85 Reviews)

An Electrifying Journey Through the Depths of a Person's Soul!
This movie was quite possibly the best movie of 2003. No offense to "The Lord of the Rings" fans, but I was very impressed with the originality of the screenplay, the emotion coming from all of the actors, and the unique direction.
First of all, the movie is about the lives of three people who all have major problems. Note: This synopsis will be very vague because I don't want to give anything away. The three people end up colliding at the end. It's so hard to explain without giving away the whole story. Let me just say this. Rent "21 Grams." The performances from Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, and Benico del Toro are all spellbinding, especially Naomi Watts who, in my opinion, should have won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Rent it and be entranced by this movie that reaches to the core of your soul and doesn't let go.

When three lives collide.
21 Grams was the best film I saw in 2004. Naomi Watts is so talented, so good in every role she is in, she is remarkable to watch, she should have won the Oscar for her performance. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are fabulous as well. The film goes out of order, non-linear so pay close attention to each scene, some scenes are cut short, some are longer to explain the story and plot better. Don't worry you will not get lost or confused, all three stories weave perfectly together halfway through the film. It is amazing how three stangers lives could all change and be affected because of one horrifying event. Intense, sad, and important film, 21 Grams will have you shaking in your boots.

Great Performances In Search of an Editor
Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are great actors. In "21 Grams," a bloated religious allegory about the nature of good and evil, fate and free will, they demonstrate an artful ability to depict relentless misery without driving us from the theater. Despite the heavy-handedness of the script and its "message," these three performances, plus that of Melissa Leo as Del Toro's pragmatic, earthy wife, will make the long, painful journey to the final credits mostly worth your time.

Faith, sin, addiction, personal responsibility and redemption figure heavily in the plot. Just in case the audience doesn't get the New Testament references, the main characters are named Cristina, Mary, Marianne, Paul, and Jack (John). Even their last names are symbolic: Jordan and Rivers (get it?). The main characters come from different strata of society and would probably never meet under normal circumstances. But their worlds collide randomly and violently, and out of the rubble come death, hope and new life. Interestingly, the message I got from "21 Grams" was that the will to go on, to face ones failings, and to embrace love and the unknowable future are not gifts given by God, but choices one makes all on ones own. The Church is portrayed not necessarily as an instrument of salvation, but as a rigid, dogmatic tangle of inconsistencies that does more to confuse than to enlighten. I'm not sure this was the filmmakers' intention, and this lack of clarity points to one of the flaws in an overwrought film salvaged by extraordinary performances.

The non-linear approach to the narrative was a plus. It was challenging to decipher and held my interest. However, way too many disjointed, unnecessary scenes took way too long to come together; thus, the pacing is slow and at times, even boring. This is where prudent editing could have made a difference.

The characterizations of Watts and Penn are superficially written, and we know very little about them or their motivations. It is to the actors' credit (and the director's) that they do such poignant and expressive work. Most impressive of all, Benicio Del Toro miraculously, often wordlessly, fully embodies a deep and decent man beaten down by deprivation and hard luck, forced finally by circumstance to choose between self-loathing and death, or forgiving himself and living in an imperfect world with the family that loves him.

Don't see this film if you're very depressed, grief-stricken over a loss and haven't processed your feelings yet, or just want to be superficially entertained. By the way, "21 grams" refers not only to the cocaine that is Cristina's personal demon, but also the theoretical weight of the soul. We learn this esoteric fact right at the end, when we are already so wrung out that its inclusion feels redundant and a bit precious. If only the editor had had a bigger say, maybe "21 Grams" would have been 21 minutes shorter, tighter and clearer.

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