This movie tells the story of how the lives of a former drug addict and single mother (Watts), a terminally ill mathematics professor (Penn), and a spiritual ex-convict (del Toro), are tragically made to interconnect as a result of a car accident that leaves a father and his two daughters dead. As confusing and preposterously dreadful as this sounds, it’s even worse on screen.
21 Grams is a very misguided film. It tries entirely too hard to reel us in with three overwhelming, unbearably tragic stories; so much so that we are not so much shocked or saddened as we are numbed by the almost gratuitous nature of the plot. We cannot relate to any of the characters because most of our lives do not approach the sheer amount of tragedy that befalls someone like Christine, Naomi Watt’s character, who not only loses her husband and her two little girls, but also unwittingly falls in love with the very person who receives her dead husband’s heart through transplant. And I won’t even mention her murder plot that has a born-again Christian as its target!
21 Grams is too outrageous and contorted a film to be taken seriously. Of course, Watts, Penn, and del Toro take it seriously—very seriously. But in the end, it is all for naught, as the movie falls far short of making any contribution worthy of its unsettling plot. The movie tries to make the very lucid point that somehow, we are all metaphysically, spiritually connected—both to our loved ones and to the strangers that pass us by on the street. The suggestion is that our lives are not merely our own. They are fickle things that can change at the drop of a hat, and not necessarily one’s own hat. While this is certainly a valid and interesting point to make, I question whether director Alejandro González Iñárritu really needed to go to such tragic extremes to make such an uncomplicated, sometimes self-evident point. Indeed, his last movie, the visceral and evocative Amores Perros, has many of the same themes, but without the blatant outrageousness that characterizes this film.
Indeed, this was one of the problems with Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, which, unsurprisingly, also starred Sean Penn. Both movies demand such large emotional investments of us that we cannot help but be skeptical of the director’s ultimate vision. However, by the end of the movie, we find that we are correct to react that way, as 21 Grams fails to redeem itself of its emotionally overburdensome plot. Too little is gained for the many tears it asks us to shed.
I’d give Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams a C-.
benicio del toro, sean penn
naomi watts, clea duvall
charlotte gainsbourg
rating: C-
"...too outrageous and contorted a film to be taken seriously."
