21 Grams

Starring: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts
Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2003

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The lives of three people, a single mother (Naomi Watts), a dying professor (Sean Penn) and a ex-con (Benicio Del Toro) are interconnected and their story weaves together as it unfolds.

Review:

Tim: 21 Grams is a somewhat confusing film. The scenes come at us so quickly and not in any linear pattern. We see bits and pieces from different periods of time and constantly try to put them together in our heads. It is difficult for much of the movie to do this, to understand when certain events occured chronologically. The storyline has more or less been done before and hasn't been too impressive in the last and here it isn't much better. It is somewhat boring.

The real bright spot of the film are the outstanding performances of the three big stars Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio Del Toro all act finely. This is a very performance-driven film, to the point where it matters more than the actual story. Their performances may have been slightly overshadowed by another Penn film, the amazingly acted Mystic River.

21 Grams is a depressing film because everyone is tortured in some way. This makes for a difficult viewing for us, but it also allows the actors to go all out in their performances.

While the cast is outstanding, it doesn't make up for a film that takes way too much time to get where it is going. Oftentimes the movie is slow and boring. The drama is great, but the story is not excellent. Most critics loved this movie, as you would expect them to. Me, I'm not such a big fan.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Mystic River, The Ring, Mulholland Drive, Blow, Traffic