21 Grams Review
by Jerry Saravia (faust668 AT aol DOT com)January 12th, 2004
21 GRAMS (2003)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on January 2nd, 2004
RATING: Four stars
It is difficult to explain why "21 Grams" works so powerfully. One can say it is the unconventional structure which, in hindsight, is not as unconventional as we might think. Others may say it is the stellar acting turns by most of the cast. I would say that director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu proves to be a force-of-nature on film - his grainy images and hand-held camerawork create a dizzying immediacy that few other filmmakers can approach. "21 Grams" feels alive, and you will feel quite alive in ways one can't easily describe after it is over.
We always hear complaints (myself included in this camp) that few recent movies ever focus so clearly and definitively on characters. "21 Grams" could be considered a film that overdoses on characters and character details. There is Paul (Sean Penn), a mathematician who has just received a heart transplant from a car accident victim. He is unhappily married to Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who moves back in with him after his surgery to help him. She wants to have a baby through artificial insemination, though Paul is initially dismayed by the prospect. Meanwhile, there is Jack (Benicio Del Toro), an ex-con who has followed Jesus and his Gospel more devotedly than your average Catholic. His life is guided by the Bible and by God, and even helps troubled kids at a reform school. He is married and has kids, but his past continues to haunt him. And then there is Christine (Naomi Watts), a once-happily married woman who faces a tragedy few can bear, and resorts to drugs to cope.
Somehow, all these lives intersect in ways that may surprise and titillate you. The structure of going back and forth in time between one isolated incident and another may drive you up the wall. One moment, Sean Penn has a beard and is walking around with an oxygen tank, the next moment he is clean shaven and having lunch with friends. Yet another moment, he is seen driving Christine to a prison where Jack is being held. Say what? Well, when the film proceeds along with such extended scenes out of order, we begin to understand what director Inarritu is doing - he is focusing on aspects and details of behavior in his characters that lend to greater introspection by the time the film is over. This is not an intentional shuffling of scenes for his sake - it is a gathering of collected moments that pinpoint each different crisis facing each character. At first, it may be jarring to see Christine sniffing coke in the bathroom, looking glum and unglamorous, before seeing her smiling at a swimming pool. What this technique does is to illustrate how a character once felt before a tragedy took place - it is like looking through a prism of one's past, present and uncertain future.
Sean Penn, in what may be his most glorious year ever after such a powerhouse performance in "Mystic River," is a true revelation - exuding his charisma and body language with a deep level of understanding of Paul's own future and past. Paul may have a better perception of who he is than anyone else in the movie. I personally pick Penn as the Best Actor of 2003 for his stunning work. A major actress emerging from the shadows, especially since "Mulholland Dr.," is Naomi Watts who gives us a shattering performance of such emotional gravity that I was blown away - Watts embodies everything we might feel if we were parents and lost an entire family. And as for Benicio Del Toro, we see an actor who is at his best keeping it low-key. Yes, he does lose his cool in many scenes but, this time, it is in keeping with the character's own inner and outer rages - he is still a loose cannon even with a strong belief in God being omnipresent.
There is no real plot in "21 Grams" but there are richly-drawn characters that leave you feeling pity for them. Everyone goes through a crisis, a moment in time that can't be changed no matter how much guilt and confusion sets in. The actors give us such pained, realistic performances that I swear I had shed a tear for each and every one of them. Yes, "21 Grams" is tough, uncompromising and unsentimental. This is not wholesome entertainment, nor is it meant to be. But it is rewarding, gloomy and poetic - the kind of film where the uncertainty of people's lives leaves one feeling incomplete leaving the theatre. And whose to say that feeling is nothing like real life.
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