Three strangers' lives are thrown together by a chain of unplanned events,
leading to a fatal and fateful resolution. Paul (Sean Penn) is a mathematician
with a broken heart, literally and metaphorically. Paul is bedridden,
and nursed by his girlfriend, who desperately wants to bear his child.
Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-con who found God, and now inflicts him
on his family. Cristina (Naomi Watts) is a respectable wife and mother,
and a former drug addict. The three are unconnected, until their fates
are brought together by a car crash.
21 Grams is the second feature from Mexican writer-director team Guillermo
Arriaga and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and like
their debut, Amores Perros, it features a fractured narrative which jumps
around the story, cutting between past, present and future. This is initially
confusing, but after a while the main chronological thread becomes clear,
as does the fact that, despite superficial similarities with films like
Memento or The Usual Suspects, there is no mystery to piece together.
Instead, the filmmakers try to show us scenes in order of their importance
to the narrative, giving away the ending early on to ensure that the audience
is focussed on the why and not the how, and escalating the sense that
the tragic events are predestined.
As this innovation suggests, 21 Grams exhibits a rare passion for the
medium itself. It's unsurprising then that the cinematography is striking,
using handheld cameras, a range of grainy stocks, and a bleach-bypass
development process to give the film a lurid, eye-catching palette. What
little music there is is discreet and effective, and the performances
are generally excellent, although I found Naomi Watts a touch melodramatic.
21 Grams is an interesting film; a thoughtful meditation on death, with
complex well-drawn characters. The film is loaded with imagery and metaphor
(for instance, each character figuratively or literally loses a child
at the moment they lose their innocence and hope).
However, despite the impressive skill on show, the film fails to engage
as a story - partly perhaps because we do already know the ending. The
characters are selfish and unpleasant, and the film's message is depressing
and fatalistic. Towards the end it becomes increasingly portentous and
humourless (particularly in the explanation of the film's title) and we
come away wondering what might have been had the material been approached
with a lighter touch.
David Haviland, Feb. 2004
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