21 Grams
Focus
Films presents a film directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Written by Guillermo Arriaga. Running time: 125 minutes.
Programme
Notes
"They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of
our death... everyone. The weight of a stack of nickels. The weight of a chocolate
bar. The weight of a hummingbird...How much does life weigh?"
21 grams postertagline.
'Intense' is probably the best word to describe 21 Grams, a muscular, heavyweight effort from director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga, the men responsible for the sensational Amores Perros. Like that earlier effort, 21 Grams hinges on a car-crash, and deals with three intertwining stories concerning such major themes as death, redemption and guilt. The difference being that while the segments in Amores Perros brushed past each other, here the fractured narratives converge with as much impact as the crash that kickstarts them.
Shot in a gritty, bleached-out style that intensifies the story on display, the performances from all three leads are equally as raw. While Penn, who won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role, and Del Toro are as solid as you would expect, it's Watts who surprises most of all, with the best turn of her career to date. A role that looks as if she went to Hell and back for, she looks as battered as the audience will feel by the end. Review by FilmFour.com
BY ROGER EBERT, Chicago Sun Times [Read
Full Review Here]
"21 Grams" knows all about its story, but only lets us discover it
a little at a time. Well, every movie does that, but usually they tell their
stories in chronological order, so we have the illusion that we're watching
as the events happen to the characters. In this film, everything has already
happened, and it's as if God, or the director, is shuffling the deck after the
game is over. Here is the question we have to answer: Is this approach better
than telling the same story from beginning to end?
The film is by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the almost unreasonably talented Mexican filmmaker whose "Amores Perros" (2000) was an enormous success. That film intercut three simultaneous stories, all centering on a traffic accident. "21 Grams" has three stories and a traffic accident, but the stories move back and forth in time, so that sometimes we know more than the characters, sometimes they know more than we do.
While the film is a virtuoso accomplishment of construction and editing, the technique has its limitations. Even though modern physics tells that time does not move from the past through the present into the future, entertaining that delusion is how we make sense of our perceptions. And it is invaluable for actors, who build their characters emotionally as events take place. By fracturing his chronology, Inarritu isolates key moments in the lives of his characters, so that they have to stand alone. There is a point at which this stops being a strategy and starts being a stunt.
"21 Grams" tells such a tormenting story, however, that
it just about survives its style. It would have been more powerful in chronological
order, and even as a puzzle, it has a deep effect. Remembering it, we dismiss
the structure and recall the events as they happened to the characters and are
moved by its three sad stories of characters faced with the implacable finality
of life.
Because the entire movie depends on withholding information and revealing unexpected
connections, it is fair enough to describe the characters but would be wrong
to even hint at some of their relationships. Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and
Naomi Watts play the key figures, and their spouses are crucial in ways that
perhaps should not be described. Penn is Paul, a professor of mathematics (even
that fact is withheld for a long time, and comes as a jolt because he does not
seem much like one). He is dying of a heart condition, needs a transplant, is
badgered by his wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) to donate sperm so that she can
have his baby -- after his death, she does not quite say.
Benicio Del Toro is Jack, a former convict who now rules his family with firm fundamentalist principles. He is using Jesus as a way of staying off drugs and alcohol; his wife (Melissa Leo) is grateful for his recovery, but dubious about his cure. The third story centers on Christina (Naomi Watts), first seen at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting; she has a husband (Danny Huston) and two daughters, and her life seems to be getting healthier and more stable, until an event takes place that eventually links all of the characters in a situation that falls half-way between tragedy and fraught melodrama.
As you watch this film, you are absorbed and involved, sometimes deeply moved; acting does not get much better than the work done here by Penn, Del Toro and Watts, and their individual moments have astonishing impact. But in the closing passages, as the shape of the underlying structure becomes clear, a vague dissatisfaction sets in. You wonder if Inarritu took you the long way around, running up mileage on his storyteller's taxi meter. Imagining how heartbreaking the conclusion would have been if we had arrived at it in the ordinary way by starting at the beginning, I felt as if an unnecessary screen of technique had been placed between the story and the audience.
Yet I do not want to give the wrong impression: This is an accomplished
and effective film, despite my reservations. It grips us, moves us, astonishes
us. Some of the revelations do benefit by coming as surprises. But artists often
grow by learning what to leave out (the great example is Ozu). I have a feeling
that Inarritu's fractured technique, which was so impressive in his first film
and is not so satisfactory in this one, may inspire impatience a third time
around. He is so good that it's time for him to get out of his own way.
CAST AND CREW
Directed by …. Alejandro González Iñárritu
Written by … Guillermo Arriaga
Cast (in credits order)
Sean Penn .... Paul Rivers
Naomi Watts .... Cristina Peck
Danny Huston .... Michael
Carly Nahon .... Cathy
Claire Pakis .... Laura
Benicio Del Toro .... Jack Jordan
Nick Nichols .... Boy
Charlotte Gainsbourg .... Mary Rivers
John Rubinstein .... Gynaecologist
Eddie Marsan .... Reverend John
Loyd Keith Salter .... Fat Man
Antef A. Harris .... Basketball Guy
Melissa Leo .... Marianne Jordan
Marc Musso .... Freddy
Teresa Delgado .... Gina
Terry Dee Draper .... Guard
Tony Guyton .... Guard #2
Wayne E. Beech Jr. .... Inmate #1
Keith Lamont Johnson .... Inmate #2
Clea DuVall .... Claudia
David Chattam .... Caddie #1
John Boyd West .... Caddie #2
Jeff Schmidt .... Caddie #3
Tony Vaughn .... Al
Paul Calderon .... Brown
Denis O'Hare .... Dr. Rothberg
Anastasia Herin .... Dolores
Carlo Alban .... Lucio
Hai Quang Tran .... Cashier
Annie Corley .... Trish
Sharon Bishop .... Receptionist
Jerry Chipman .... Cristina's Father
Tom Irwin .... Dr. Jones
Roberto Medina .... Dr. Molina
Arita Trahan .... Dr. Badnews
Rodney Ingle .... Barman
Catherine Dent .... Ana
Kevin Chapman .... Alan (as Kevin H. Chapman)
Randall Hartzog .... Friend #1
Verda Davenport .... Friend #2 (as Verda Davenport-Booher)
Dorothy Armstrong-Miles Female Friend #1
Barclay Roberts .... Male Friend#1
Lisa Sanchez .... Wife
Stephen Bridgewater .... P.I.
Michael Finnell .... Fat Prisoner
Juan Corrigan .... Valet
Charlie B. Brown .... Night Guard
Arron Shiver .... Young Doctor
Pamela Blair .... Doctor
Jennifer Pfalzgraff .... Nurse
Lew Temple .... County Sheriff
Tricia Branch .... Skinny Woman
Guillermo Arriaga .... associate producer
Alejandro González Iñárritu ...producer
Ted Hope .... executive producer
Robert Salerno .... producer
Original Music by … Gustavo Santaolalla
Dave Matthews … (song "Some Devil")
Non-Original Music by
Lee Oskar (song "Low Rider")
Cinematography by … Rodrigo Prieto
Film Editing by … Stephen Mirrione
Casting by … Francine Maisler
Production Design by … Brigitte Broch
Art Direction by … Deborah Riley
Set Decoration by … Meg Everist
Costume Design by … Marlene Stewart
Luisa Abel ... makeup department head
Vivian Baker ... key makeup artist
Gail Rowell-Ryan … hair department head
Laurel Van Dyke .... … hair stylist