MOVIE REVIEW

21 Grams  (2003)

Starring: Sean Penn, Naomie Watts, Benicio Del Toro
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Rating: R

Studio: Focus Features

Release Date: 11.21.03

Review Posted: 01.23.04

Spoilers: Minor

By Gregory L. Amato

"21 Grams" Heavy Stuff

Is “21 Grams” a meditation on the frailty of human life? A cautionary tale about revenge? A commentary on America’s response to terrorism? How to best describe director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film is a difficult task, as it weaves together so many relevant themes. The film is timely, powerful, and supported by three of the year’s best performances, and it’s truly a shame that it hasn’t garnered more attention.

The story connects three strangers with a horrific accident that destroys Cristina Peck’s (Naomi Watts) family. Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-convict whose life revolves around his own family and his faith in Jesus, but as the perpetrator of the accident his family life is consumed by guilt and his faith is shattered. Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) is a dying math professor who needs a new heart, and gets one as a result of the accident. After discovering how his life came to be saved, he too is racked with guilt. The debt he feels to Cristina is overwhelming, and compels him to assist her even as she hunts down Jack Jordan for revenge.

“21 Grams” may be the most non-linear film in recent memory. This is no “Memento,” with two distinct parts moving in different directions—that would be way too easy. The scenes in this film seem to be presented at random at first, but eventually it becomes clear that each distinct timeline is getting closer to the pivotal events in the story. The technique is initially confusing, but it draws the audience in more effectively than the standard, linear format.

We don’t actually see the accident, and we don’t need to. The intensity of the aftermath and the performances by Del Toro, Watts, and Penn are more than enough. Cristina sorts through clothes in a hamper and feverishly tries to find the smell of her late husband. She replays his last phone message to her over and over again, and eventually she returns to an old drug habit. Jack fares little better, and finds no consolation in his alcoholism or in self-mutilation. Paul has a new life after his operation, yet his burden grows heavier by far as he and Cristina get closer to finding Jack.

Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of “21 Grams” is that it offers an alternative to the standard revenge formula, and in doing so it succeeds on its own terms.  Revenge isn’t a means of satisfying the audience by making sure the bad guy dies here. Instead it is a hollow endeavor that ultimately can’t get anywhere but further on a downward spiral. The bleakness of many of the colors and shots (the barren landscape, cheap motel, and abandoned pool in particular) underscore the emptiness of Cristina’s pursuit as she tracks the man who killed her family in a misguided quest for closure. Where “Kill Bill” made revenge a worthwhile goal filled with humor and excitement, “21 Grams” makes it a psychological black hole that draws its characters into a void while fooling them into thinking that they’re getting somewhere.

While the mish mashed timeline in “21 Grams” may be initially hard to take—you may know more about the story from the previews than from the first half hour—the film soon makes all but a few things clear. In the end we aren’t as interested in what happens as in why things happen, and the food for thought lasts long after the film ends.

Though emotionally draining, “21 Grams” also manages to impart a sense of hope without using a sappy cop-out ending (“28 Days Later,” I’m looking at you). The film may make viewers cringe not from shock tactics but from how plausibly the story is presented or from how intensely the characters are portrayed. Much like an earlier 2003 release, “The Secret Lives of Dentists,” the film is scary because the themes presented are ones we can relate to; the film may put some audiences off because it is just too real. “21 Grams” may not give you a spring in your step after you leave the theater, but you will definitely be thinking about it the next day.

Rating:  êêêê1/2  (out of 5)

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