Now I’ve finally got around to seeing “21 Grams” for myself, and I can understand my friend’s reaction. I found the beginning of the movie unpleasant and the characters unlikable. Also, I felt jerked around by the filmmakers because they made a jigsaw puzzle of the story by scrambling the chronology. But there was a big difference between my experience with the movie and that of my friend: she was in a theater, while I was at home watching it on DVD.
Since I was at home, it was easier for me to persevere to the end of the film, and while I can’t say it won my heart, it earned my admiration. This is an actor’s movie, but to my mind, it is more cerebral than character-driven. I’d describe this movie as a mood piece and a sometimes maddening one. I believe the movie’s unconventional structure is intended to first throw the viewer off kilter and into the characters’ torment. As the film progresses, the narrative become clearer and some central ideas emerge. Although most of this movie is filled with despair and chaos, towards the end there are hints of hope and redemption. But it took me some thought after finishing the film to understand this.
“21 Grams” is in English and set in some anonymous U.S. location that’s partly like Memphis and partly like New Mexico. The incident that drives the narrative is a pickup truck killing some pedestrians, but the details are sketchy. The story unfolds from the ramifications of that incident in the lives of three characters played by Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio Del Toro.
I feel duty-bound not to reveal much about the plot of “21 Grams” because this is a film where the viewer is supposed to work at figuring things out. However, I think it does no harm to briefly describe each of the three major characters before the incident mentioned above: (1) Penn’s character is awaiting a heart transplant and is unhappily married; (2) Watts’ character is a homemaker who has her drug problem under control; and (3) Del Toro’s character is a born-again ex-con with a wife and kids.
I think the best thing about “21 Grams” is the acting. As mentioned earlier, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro received Academy Award nominations for their performances in the movie, although neither won. Interestingly enough, Sean Penn's excellent performance in “21 Grams” went unrecognized by the Academy, but at the same ceremony that left Watts and Del Toro empty-handed, Penn walked away with the Best Actor Oscar for his work in “Mystic River.”
The director of “21 Grams” was Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, previously known for his Spanish-language film “Amores perros.” Iñárritu worked with the same screenwriter and cinematographer on both movies, yet the two films differ in many ways. I find “Amores perros” lively and emotional, while I see “21 Grams” as dark, brooding, and intellectual. I think both movies are very good, but I can’t help liking “Amores perros” better.
Unfortunately, the “21 Grams” DVD comes with no bonus materials of any kind, but I have listed below the language options provided.
Selected Special Features:
- Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
- English 5.1 Dolby Digital
- English 5.1 DTS
- French 5.1 Dolby Digital
- English Captions for the Hearing Impaired
- Spanish Subtitles
- French Subtitles
