Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's follow-up to Amores Perros is a dazzling and profoundly moving exploration of revenge and redemption. Superb performances from Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts.
Unlike Quentin Tarantino – who chose to follow the daring non-linearity of Pulp Fiction with the altogether more sedate Jackie Brown – Gonzalez Inarritu upped the ante... more >
Unlike Quentin Tarantino – who chose to follow the daring non-linearity of Pulp Fiction with the altogether more sedate Jackie Brown – Gonzalez Inarritu upped the ante on himself for his second feature, taking everything that was so exhilarating about his debut Amores Perros (the ferocious complexity, the dazzling editing, the sense that ‘here was a new film director capable of making intelligent films for intelligent people’), and somehow refining it, producing – in 21 Grams – a film capable of stopping your breath with the sheer artistic audacity on display. And, what is perhaps more surprising, he does it with Hollywood’s money.
Hinging upon three quite remarkable performances – Sean Penn as Paul, a maths teacher eking out his days sneaking cigarettes in a bathroom waiting for a heart to become available for transplant, Naomi Watts as Christina, a woman with a former dependency problem now settling into happy domesticity, and Benicio de Toro as Jack, an ex-con attempting to go straight – 21 Grams revolves around a car accident which changes the lives of all concerned, setting in motion a chain of events that inexorably leads to revenge and redemption.
What elevates 21 Grams from the ranks of good to the great, however, is the way in which Inarritu has constructed his material. Like Christopher Nolan’s Memento or Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, 21 Grams is presented to the viewer as a selection of random jigsaw pieces. In lots of ways, it is like reading a collection of loosely connected short stories (think Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson, for instance). The jarring landscapes – elegant Memphis one minute, bleached out New Mexican desert the next – alienate and unsettle us in the film’s opening quarter and then, later, provide a frame of reference as we careen back and forth from time period to time period.
Unlike much modern cinema, 21 Grams is a film of vaulting ambition, rich in the kind of wisdom and experience that only real tragedy has a tendency to imbue. A human soul may only weigh 21 grams, but the value of 21 Grams to the human soul is immeasurable.
< less
Now accepted as one of the most capable actors of his generation, Sean Penn has long outgrown the trappings of his ill-fated liaison with Ms Ciccione, as this gritty d... more >
Now accepted as one of the most capable actors of his generation, Sean Penn has long outgrown the trappings of his ill-fated liaison with Ms Ciccione, as this gritty drama demonstrates. Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro are three very different individuals whose lives intersect after a tragic accident. Inarritu’s direction is always compelling and incisive. < less
