Product Description: The emotionally and physically charged lives of three people a college professor (Sean Penn) an ex-con (Benicio Del Toro) and a young mother with a reckless past (Naomi Watts) collide unexpectedly in this gripping suspense thriller.Fate brought them together. Now vengeance will take them to the heights of love the depths of revenge and the promise of redemption. Sean Penn Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts give the finest performances of their careers in the film that is tantalizingly alive! (Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly)System Requirements:Running Time 125 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 025193013620 Manufacturer No: 62030136
Amazon.com: Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro, two of the most gripping actors around, play wildly different men linked through a grieving woman (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, The Ring) in 21 Grams. Del Toro (Traffic, The Usual Suspects) delves deep into the role of an ex-con turned born-again Christian, a deeply conflicted man struggling to set right a terrible accident, even at the expense of his family. Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking) captures a cynical, philandering professor in dire need of a heart transplant, which he gets from the death of Watts' husband. 21 Grams slips back in forth in time, creating an intricate emotional web out of the past and the present that slowly draws these three together; the result is remarkably fluid and compelling. The movie overreaches for metaphors towards the end, but that doesn't erase the power of the deeply felt performances. --Bret Fetzer
Hyped Garbage I hated this movie. It was so slow and annoying, filled with over-the-top acting and a story that jumps all over the place. I understand that the directing was different because the movie goes back and forth through time to explain the story, but this wasn't interesting to me. It just served to confuse and make the movie move along at a snail's pace. The more Sean Penn films I see, the more I am starting to think that he ain't so great. Naomi Watts was so annoying in this movie and I'm sorry, but I felt no sympathy for her at all. Benicio Del Toro was great, but he is great in everything so it was no surprise that he did a great job in his role. Ultimately, this is a slow movie that is way overrated. I didn't enjoy this film and was very happy when it was over. I give it 2 stars because it tried to do something different.
Edited in a non-linear arrangement where the lives of the characters are depicted before and after a tragic automobile accident 21 Grams is a movie which has three parallel thread stories which seem to be unconnected but the movie progresses it becomes apparent that all three stories and characters are connected.
The thread stories are
1) Sean Penn plays a critically ill academic mathematician, 2) Noami Watts plays a grief stricken mother, 3) Benicio Del Toro plays an ex-convict who has newly discovered Christianity
All three characters center around a tragic automobile accident.
The movie although shot in chronological order, is edited in a non-linear arrangement where the lives of the characters are depicted before and after the accident. The random order in which the 'before' and 'after' bits of the 3 stories are mixed around, could confuse some viewers who are not attentive or who don't want to take the effort. This movie requires a bit of serious viewing. But it's different and novel. When the end, start and middle of the movie are mish mashed around, it breaks down our formal thinking process of a first, middle and last act of the movie. It also adds suspense and curiosity to see what transpired in between when we see the start,end and certain middle parts one after the other and then spend the rest of the time curious to know what happened in between and to fit the pieces of the puzzle. Not a conventional film, not for everyone but a good film neverthless.
And the title "21 grams" actually refers to suppossed loss of weight when a person dies. So when a body dies it looses the soul and in the movie we are told 21 grams is what the 'soul' weighs and we thus weigh lesser by 21 grams after death.
regards, Vikram
Pretty Good Movie For the first half hour of 21 grams, I just had no clue what was going on. Then the story actually starts to piece itself together, and it was a pretty rewarding experience. Really good acting by Penn, Del Toro, and Watts. Parts of it were a little overly melodramatic, but it wasn't enough to distract from the quality of the movie.
What started out interesting grew very tiresome: 21 GRAMS in 205 MINUTES! The more I think about 21 GRAMS the more I start to dislike it...so I better write quickly before the stars start decreasing!
Three separate lives all coming together as as a result of a car accident that kills a husband and two children. OKAY....told in a non-linear way....OKAY....some riveting performances.....OKAY....ending with a thud of an explanation....NOT OKAY.
After being flipped back and forth from story to story, time frame to time frame, trying to piece all of it together to result in a meaningful theme...all we get is 21 Grams is the weight of the soul...etc.etc.?? If the point of the film was that a soul is way more than just the biological 21 gram weight...well.....never mind!
When one boils down the entire plot and it's moral, why did director Alejandro Inaritu need to jerk us back and forth making us as nauseated as Sean Penn was in this film? I stayed with it (heck I had no choice!) for about 90 minutes, but after that this film and it's "clever" style just became downright annoying. I was tired of it and wanted it to end!!! The King in AMADEUS loosely quoted said "Once in a while it's just a little too...too....long.Just cut a few notes and I'm sure it will be just perfect!" Listen to the King Alejandro!
CRASH, TRAFFIC and MEMENTO do all of this better!
This film has all the markings of a truly great film. The sound, though, is probably it's worst feature.You have to keep lowering it during music sequences and yelling and raising it for lots of low-talking! That is a real pain in a film that jumps around like a worm on a hot rock! I best stop now, because a feel another star falling!
This is for those who want their grams back... This was an extremely moving film that pulls no punches yet beautifully avoids passing judgment. Del Toro is Jack Jordan, a seemingly normal guy who commits a most horrific crime - in a hit and run, he kills a man and his two daughters, condemning Cristina (Naomi Watts), a mother and wife to a life of endless grief and hatred. Separated, Jack and Cristina endure a living death. Guilt-ridden Jack will consign himself to prison and find religion an apt avenue for suicide. Cristina, it turns out, had an especially unstable life before being settled down by marriage, and with her family gone, turns back to chemical bereavement counseling. Jack wants nothing more than punishment, and Cristina is all too ready to satisfy Jack's need.
And then there's Paul, the man who finally brings the two of them together. A mathematician with a terminal heart, condition and a marriage to match, Paul receives Cristina's husband's heart, and then court her. Paul thinks himself a hero, doubtless, taking Cristina out for lunch, driving her home from clubs when she's had one-too-many. But Cristina has an influence on Paul as well - a negative one.
This flick charts the emotional rollercoaster of Jack, Paul and Cristina's lives. The film plays out of chronological sequence, but hardly out of order. Like a ride, it has its fast moments and its slow ones, milking the maximum emotional velocity by playing its scenes to a climax before returning to an earlier point in the story. The effect is at times incomprehensible but also unforgettable. Suffice it to say, this is the perfect movie for people who like to see the same movie more than once. In a voice-over, the title supposedly refers to a theory that the human soul weighs 21 grams. This is the story of those who got their grams back.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
