21 Grams Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)December 22nd, 2003
21 Grams
Matinee and Snacks
As one of my companions wisely noted, it takes a village to watch this movie. This is not a film for a passive movie watcher - the first 40 minutes is very demanding in terms of puzzling out the narrative. Structurally, it's like each scene was assigned a number and then the editors threw all the numbers up in the air in a cinematic 52-card pickup game. First this character is here, then he is in the hospital, then he is fine, then he is far less than fine, but with a different womanŠand that is just one of the three plot lines which dance and bob and interweave and ultimately connect. It is this ultimate connection that makes the difficulties of the first third of the film so rewarding. Once you figure out the major plot points then the movie seems to slow down; after concentrating so hard now you are hypersensitive to any new information. The movie completely sucks you in and even as it answers questions, new ones arise, but it is never frustrating.
Sean Penn plays a different character than we have seen him do for a while, much more subdued and hangdog and low status, and as always, he is deeply believable. Benicio Del Toro is an over-characterized Jesus freak ex-con, and Naomi Watts is a woman who, as she is slowly revealed in the film, I'll just say is very real and powerful to watch. I don't want to deprive you of the pleasure of discovering everything for yourself. These three main actors are so wildly divergent in acting style and flavor and their characters come from such different places; when they meet in the crossroads of their stories, there is no other way for it to happen.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, who also directed Mexico's entry in September 11, 21 Grams is a metaphor tucked behind a story. The conceit of 21 grams is not revealed until the end of the movie, and I can tell you this, because it ruins nothing - we all supposedly lose exactly 21 grams of mass at the exact moment of our death. His thesis with regards to the deeper meaning of this final weight loss is played out very sparingly in the plot and then driven home for us in the last moments.
You might notice some interesting edits within scenes, like a simple scene of talking would have a shot of a person at this angle, and then the next cut their head is in a slightly different place. This was not a continuity problem, though I admit I am describing it like one, but like they are playing out their scene in little slighly alternate realities. Like the commercials cut to seem like an interview that has been edited for length. The thought, the moment of the scene, changes in these different takes, and the editor kept them in to make some flavor. The small things that add up to great changes, like Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder. I don't know for certain that this is even a theme of the film, but the feel of it is present and arresting.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
