Release Date:
11/21/2003
If you’re looking for a good time at the movies, gather up the kids and prepare for uplifting tales of faulty heart transplantation, parenting on drugs, and murdered toddlers! In 21 Grams, three characters—Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro), an ex-con struggling with religion; Paul Rivers (Sean Penn), a college professor waiting on a new heart; and Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts), a mom and wife battling prior drug addictions—are brought together by a fatal car accident. Amores Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu (yeah, we can’t pronounce it either) pares down each story through a tangled timeline that slowly fills in the rest of their bleak lives while Penn, Del Toro, and Watts all hold the fragments together until you get your bearings. But until you figure out why everyone keeps crying (there’s about 10 composite minutes of good times in over two hours of film), bide your time with cringe-provoking scenes, like Rivers’ smoking butts on a respirator and Jordan tattooing himself with a burning-hot butter knife. By avoiding the standard, Hollywood happy-ending gift wrap, 21 Grams is both intensely interesting and bowel-failingly depressing. And perfect for the holidays!