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"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 halfway 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.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

21 Grams (2003)

Rated R for language, sexuality, some violence and drug use

125 minutes

Benicio Del Toro as Jack

Naomi Watts as Christina

Charlotte Gainsbourg as Mary

Melissa Leo as Marianne

Sean Penn as Paul

Danny Huston as Michael

Clea Duvall as Claudia

Paul Calderon as Brown

Guillermo Arriaga
Gustavo Santaolalla

Produced by

Robert Salerno

Directed by

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Photographed by

Rodrigo Prieto
Stephen Mirrione

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21 Grams Reviews

21 Grams soars into the chilly empyrean of first-class film-making by virtue of the most traditional of values: sympathetic characters and clever plotting.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2018

21 Grams is convincing both as a mid-American document and as the universal moral drama that it aims to be.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2012

Thought-provoking film not for tweens/young teens.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 26, 2010

A highly emotional, thought provoking drama that easily lives up to the hype, 21 Grams is a film that has all of its bases covered: script, acting and direction.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 6, 2010

"21 Grams" commands a running discourse that runs as a constant thematic thread through all of humanity. The movie delivers life as a floating mysterious entity that we all share. It's very few films that achieve anything remotely close.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Apr 18, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Une oeuvre d'une rare intensit dramatique qui n'a aucunement besoin de suivre un cheminement narratif classique pour susciter une vive raction chez le spectateur

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 5, 2008

The structure simply doesn't let any of the characters build an arc of growth or despair.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 23, 2007

The story never grabbed me, and the jumps in narrative time seemed arbitrary, soon becoming a distressing obstacle rather than a narrative lynchpin. Not as good as it wants to be.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jun 21, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 4, 2006

The performances, by and large, outweigh the film's unnecessary metaphorical gunk.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 3, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 5, 2005

Quel est le poids de l'amour, de la vengeance et de la culpabilit? vous de le dcouvrir.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Dec 16, 2004

... a hurricane of melodrama and implausibly accelerating crises that seem orchestrated merely to turn up the intensity. ... At 125 minutes, [it] feels more like 240.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 6, 2004

21 Grams thrashes wildly...exhorting us to feel something. Apart from the fleeting satisfaction of its structural parlor game, I felt little...save exhausted boredom.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 30, 2004

Absorbs you and dissects its tale of life, death, and re-birth with inventive force.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 13, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 7, 2004

21 Grams achieves its objectives and, despite its flaws, is thoroughly entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 82/100 | Jul 20, 2004

21 Grams...is intelligent, well-written, and told with a unique style, and it features some of the best acting presently available.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 31, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 16, 2004

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Movie Review: '21 Grams'

Bob Mondello

Director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu of Mexico made a name for himself last year with the film Amores Perros . That film used an unorthodox narrative structure to include multiple vantage points. Inarritu's new picture, 21 Grams , continues in that vein, weaving scenes from different storylines to tell a story of intersecting lives. NPR's Bob Mondello has a review.

FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; Hearts Incapacitated, Souls Wasting Away

By Elvis Mitchell

Oct. 18, 2003

''21 Grams'' is a ruminative, stunned look at life after death -- that is, the existence of the living after they have been devastated by loss; it's the aftermath. The actors playing the characters who have been rocked by catastrophe don't sink to theatrical histrionics; instead they're linked by the red-eyed, unblinking stare of zombies, and they shamble through their day-by-day activities as if saddled with death wishes they are too enervated to act upon: American Existentialism.

The stars, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts, achieve something that doesn't sound as if it's possible: a virtuosity in the depiction of people wasting away minute by minute. Be prepared for it. You won't come out unaffected, because the depths of intimacy that the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu plumbs here are so rarely touched by filmmakers that ''21 Grams'' is tantamount to the discovery of a new country. It's too early to call it a crowning work of a career -- this is only his second film -- but it may well be the crowning work of this year. It is being shown tomorrow night at the New York Film Festival and will be released nationwide on Nov. 14.

Working with the screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga and the bewilderingly versatile cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto -- the team he assembled for his debut feature, ''Amores Perros'' -- Mr. González Iñárritu once again deals with three scenarios connected by one far-reaching cataclysm.

Prof. Paul Rivers (Mr. Penn) is suffering from a damaged heart, which is about to give out on him, and the transplant he receives so consumes him with guilt that he's like a death-row prisoner with a horrible secret who's been pardoned. He still believes he deserves to die. Cristina (Ms. Watts), a reformed party girl, has returned to her fallen ways after taking up with Paul. She's lost her family in an auto accident. And Jack (Mr. Del Toro) is a shaggy, trembling mountain of anger he can barely contain. His already tenuous grasp on sobriety is slipping away even faster since being involved in a terrible incident.

''Amores Perros'' dealt with the inevitability of Fate -- one's ability to handle a life-changing event that defined you as either an adult or a child. The theme of ''21 Grams'' is similar and uses a Faulknerian idea of Old Testament grace, focusing on three people unable to absorb that quality. And for Paul, Cristina and Jack, grace is a destination that, to quote ''As I Lay Dying,'' is ''a day's long, hard ride away.'' Mr. Arriaga's splintered style of storytelling -- breaking a mirror and piecing it back together with small, telling parts missing -- could owe as much to Faulkner as it does to Quentin Tarantino.

Passion is important here because the characters have it snatched from their souls. Pursuit of passion manifests itself for each of the three leads in totally different ways. Mr. Penn, an actor of sometimes embarrassingly direct volatility, plays Paul as a gentle but self-possessed man stripped of his intellectual arrogance. He still stands upright, but each move is unsteady. He regains part of that passion only in acts of dissolution, but he worsens things because these acts don't fulfill him.

Because Ms. Watts reinvents herself with each performance, it's easy to forget how brilliant she is. She has a boldness that comes from a lack of overemphasis, something actresses sometimes do to keep up with Mr. Penn, whose virtuosity can be a challenge. Cristina clings to Paul and to the self-abasement that is all she has left; she treats it like a calling. It's easy to note, though, that Cristina occasionally stares as if she could will her former, happy life to being by locating a vision of it on the horizon.

This triptych of psychological affliction is completed by the protean Mr. Del Toro. His potency as an actor is deepened because in addition to his emotional gifts he is a performer of great physical dignity; he loses it in ''21 Grams,'' and it's a sure sign of the control Mr. Del Toro has that it can be seen slipping away.

The film is also full of fine supporting performances. Each of the characters' wrecked lives takes on fuller shape from the loved ones beaten down by neglect. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Paul's wife, and her unusually striking face -- beautiful from one angle, odd from another -- is so completely expressive that it does much of the work for her. As Jack's wife, Melissa Leo makes her relationship to a man given to tremendous and simultaneous hostility and remorse so real it's absorbing and painful to watch.

The intelligence of completing the picture by displaying the suffering through the eyes of the leads' loved ones makes ''21 Grams'' an extraordinarily satisfying vision.

The title refers to the amount of mass said to escape the body at the moment of death -- the supposed weight of the soul. But the movie also evokes the majestic heartbreak of the Willie Nelson song ''Three Days,'' a misery compounded by the sweetness of K. D. Lang's cover: ''Three days, filled with tears and sorrow -- yesterday, today and tomorrow.''

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu; written by Guillermo Arriaga; director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto; edited by Stephen Mirrione; music by Gustavo Santaolalla; production designer, Brigitte Broch; produced by Mr. González Iñárritu and Robert Solerno; released by Focus Features. Running time: 125 minutes. This film is rated R. Shown tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. at Avery Fisher Hall, 165 West 65th Street, at Lincoln Center, as the closing night film of the 41st New York Film Festival.

WITH: Sean Penn (Paul Rivers), Benicio Del Toro (Jack Jordan), Naomi Watts (Cristina Peck), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Mary Rivers), Melissa Leo (Marianne Jordan), Clea DuVall (Claudia Williams) and Danny Huston (Michael Williams).

21 Grams Review

05 Mar 2004

124 minutes

A slew of contemporary classics — Out Of Sight, Memento, City Of God, The Usual Suspects , pretty much everything by Quentin Tarantino — have exploited abrupt shifts in time or character perspective to dazzle or deceive the audience.

It’s a technique founded in the work of Jean-Luc Godard and his fellow European New Wave auteurs, who used experimental narrative structures to highlight the essential artifice of film and unsettle the viewer. But with 21 Grams, Amores Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu and co-screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga have made a quantum leap, using a fragmented storytelling technique to involve, intrigue and, crucially, move the audience.

The resulting film is a genuinely thrilling emotional experience — often unbearably tense, occasionally heartbreakingly sad, ultimately uplifting but always, always riveting.

The basic premise seems simple enough — a tragic accident brings three disparate individuals together — but from such seemingly conventional material the filmmakers weave a complex tale, exploring issues of fate, guilt, revenge and redemption.

Sean Penn’s directorial output ( The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard, The Pledge ) has revealed his own preoccupation with these themes, so it’s no surprise that his performance here is utterly compelling. With this film and Mystic River , Penn is entering a golden period in his career, as he finally grows into the kind of role suited to his considerable gifts as an actor. As a young man, his undoubted intensity could often come across as adolescent angst or macho posturing. Now he exudes a world-weary gravitas worthy of pre-Method icons like Mitchum, Douglas or Lancaster.

In almost any other film, Penn’s performance would be the standout, but his work here is matched by his co-stars’. Benicio Del Toro excels as ex-con Jack Jordan, whose acceptance of Jesus as his personal saviour makes him a pain in the ass to his much less fervent wife and kids. Jack’s desire to do the right thing and face up to his culpability would ordinarily make him admirable, but the film is intelligent enough to point out the inherent selfishness of this moral code. The audience’s relationship with the character is constantly alternating between sympathy and contempt, between affection and exasperation. Lesser actors would be weighed down by these contradictions; Del Toro uses them as fuel and takes flight.

With two such dominant alpha male presences in the film, it would be understandable if the lead actress failed to make much of an impact. The odds are further stacked against Naomi Watts since her character — the suburban soccer mom with a history of cocaine abuse — is confronted with a succession of revelations, and must ‘do’ shocked, outraged, grief-stricken, devastated.

The unconventional structure employed means that these ‘big’ scenes are interspersed with more intimate moments, calling for more subtle execution. She rises to every challenge, connecting with the audience on the emotional terms that are essential if we’re to feel truly involved with the film’s spiritual and philosophical elements.

If Watts continues alternating work of the quality shown here — and in breakthrough **Mulholland Dr. **— with commercial hits like The Ring , then the title ‘finest actress of her generation’ is hers for the taking.

The film has been described as a jigsaw puzzle, but that’s not a suitable analogy. The individual pieces of a puzzle hold no value of their own, but every scene, every frame of 21 Grams has real artistic merit. The editing, cinematography and use of music are all stunning and combine with the performances (main and supporting) to form a flawless whole. The film is less like a jigsaw and more like a great novel in which not a sentence, not a word, is wasted. Iñárritu and his collaborators have created something astonishing, and your cinema-going year will be incomplete if you miss it.

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Produced by, released by, 21 grams (2003), directed by alejandro gonzález iñárritu.

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Review by Perry Seibert

Thanks to strong acting and a solid screenplay, 21 Grams is intellectually and emotionally compelling, even as the editing style hinders it from being as engaging as it could be. Guillermo Arriaga's script for Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams was written chronologically, but with the knowledge that the story line would be fractured in the editing room. There are no bad scenes in the film. The actors all bring a gravitas to the material that grounds the film in what feels like truth, if not necessarily reality. Benicio Del Toro uses his expressive physical presence to reveal his character's inner conflict, effectively communicating a variety of inner states with little more than his posture. While Naomi Watts' character suffers the most in the film, she expresses an inner strength even in her most defeated moments that keeps the character compelling. Although she endures the most horrible life events, she is the one that seems most able to survive. She never loses control, she simply is so worn down that she begins to make bad decisions. Sean Penn is saddled with the most difficult role of the three, as his character is little more than a plot device. His survivor's guilt drives the story forward, but there are so many other actions for which the man should feel guilty that the character loses a three-dimensionality that the other two possess. Despite its fractured narrative, 21 Grams is at heart an old-fashioned melodrama. By aggressively chopping up the order that the events in the film are presented to the audience, Iñárritu sacrifices letting the three main characters' emotional arcs affect the viewer. However, the style does succeed in keeping the audience in the moment of each of the scenes, something that might be difficult for an audience member if he or she were feeling overwhelmed by the many tragic events that precede any given scene. Iñárritu may enjoy telling a story in this way, but he does not allow his audience to feel the full weight of 21 Grams.

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21 Grams (United States, 2003)

21 Grams is a stunning kaleidoscope of a motion picture - a mosaic of images that gradually resolves itself into a powerful tale of tragedy and redemption. Not only is this one of the year's most compelling motion pictures, but, in terms of structure, it's also one of the most intriguing and unique. Not since Memento has a movie so successfully employed a non-linear chronology. The jigsaw puzzle approach used by director Alejandro González Iñárritu keeps us far more intrigued than a conventional vision of identical material would.

It's difficult to provide any kind of plot summary that doesn't give away crucial details, so I'll stick to the bare facts. 21 Grams centers around three main characters whose fates intersect at a crucial moment. Paul (Sean Penn) is a math professor with a bad heart. His marriage to Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg) seems as doomed as he is, but she refuses to leave him in his terminal state. She wants to have his child via artificial insemination, but, without a heart transplant, he will not live long enough to see his offspring. Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-con who has reformed his life through devotion to Jesus. But there are times, especially in his home life, when glimpses of his past personality shine through. Christine (Naomi Watts) is a happily married woman with a loving husband and two delightful daughters. She is content with her daily routine until events send her life spinning out of control, impelling her back into the drug-induced haze from which her marriage rescued her.

Had 21 Grams been presented in a linear manner, it would have been an engaging, occasionally harrowing motion picture. The themes would have been the same and the acting, which is of the highest caliber, wouldn't have been any different. Yet it would have been a fundamentally different motion picture. By piecing events together in this unconventional manner, Iñárritu forces us to pay scrupulous attention from the very beginning. We are hypersensitized to everything that occurs, and it allows us to absorb much more than we might under "normal" circumstances. Plus, we are intellectually engaged from the beginning. In that we are called upon to piece together a puzzle, one could argue that 21 Grams is almost an interactive motion picture.

At first, the movie is confusing. It's as if the filmmakers assembled about 50 scenes, all two to four minutes in length, and randomly edited them together. 21 Grams moves backwards and forwards in time and jumps from character to character with dizzying frequency. But, out of what initially seems to be a maddeningly random approach, a pattern emerges. It becomes clear that Inárritu is paving a narrative path in a spiral that curves ever closer to a series of key moments. Past, future, and present are all converging. It takes a little while, but a picture begins to emerge from the fog. Then, it's just a matter of putting the pieces in the right places.

Another strength of Iñárritu's approach is that it results in a deeper empathy with the characters. By seeing them in a wide variety of circumstances during a compressed time frame, we come to relate to them far more quickly than we would had this story been told in a chronological fashion. We know bits and pieces of where they have been and where they are headed, and this can make it feel a little like playing an amnesiac God.

For Sean Penn, this represents an amazing one-two punch alongside Mystic River . Penn might not only have given the best male performance of the year, but the second-best as well, and it's difficult to determine whether he's better here or in Clint Eastwood's movie. He's more subdued in 21 Grams , since he's playing a dying man with a guilt-ridden conscience, but the same kinds of moral issues confront Paul as those that confront Penn's Mystic River character. It's interesting to see the different ways in which the situations are resolved.

Naomi Watts has seen her star ascend quickly in the past few years (ever since she appeared in Mulholland Drive ), and, with every new performance, it has increased in magnitude. In terms of serious acting, this is easily her most impressive effort. Like Penn's and Del Toro's alter-egos, her character is forced to undergo several radical transformations. And it most definitely is not a glamorous role. There are scenes where she's strung out on drugs and looks like she hasn't bathed in weeks.

Benicio Del Toro is no less impressive than either of his co-stars, although his part is arguably the least showy of the three main roles. Jack is a sincere man who undergoes a crisis of faith. The key to Del Toro's portrayal is sincerity. Jack doesn't come across as a religious hypocrite. He's someone who genuinely believes what he preaches, and feels intense guilt whenever he strays from the path. 21 Grams invites us to understand the religious mindset, not to dismiss it.

Visually, the film is dark and grainy, with a desaturated palette of colors. The music is slow and moody. All of this is appropriate to Inárritu's overall stylistic intent. Although the tone is brooding and somber, 21 Grams offers a nugget of hope through one of its themes - that of redemption, which is clearly something the director believes in. In some ways, this is similar to Iñárritu's recent outing, Amores Perros , which also reveled in the darkness of human nature and used a non-linear narrative. However, despite its multiple tragedies, 21 Grams is fundamentally more optimistic, because the characters are sympathetic. They're certainly not all saints, but we feel for them.

Few films released in 2003 can boast having as many strengths as 21 Grams . It is, in a word, amazing. It's one of those motion pictures that haunts your thoughts and won't let go. Like Memento , it virtually demands a second viewing to understand and appreciate the story's complexity and to recognize the artistry inherent in all of the transitions. I give this film my highest recommendation.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Thought-provoking film has sex, violence, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Even in the darkest times, hope can still be found

Reckless behavior all around, though characters ar

Diversity behind the camera includes Mexican filmm

Characters shoot guns and get shot. An unconscious

Characters have sex (bare breasts and thrusting vi

Several uses of "f--k" and "s--t." Characters also

Coke and Diet Coke are visible and mentioned a few

Main characters frequently smoke cigarettes. They

Positive Messages

Even in the darkest times, hope can still be found. But the film sends a barrage of bleak messages to get there: Your family and loved ones can die at any moment. One mistake can have consequences that haunt you for life. And cheating is OK if you're in a loveless relationship.

Positive Role Models

Reckless behavior all around, though characters are humanized: Cristina -- who's in grief -- does drugs, tries to drive while high, etc. Jack tries his best to become a better person through religion, but his mistakes still have fatal consequences, and he physically/verbally abuses his children. Paul cheats on his wife. Characters have unsafe sex.

Diverse Representations

Diversity behind the camera includes Mexican filmmakers Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga. On-screen, the three main characters include Cristina Peck (played by Naomi Watts, who's White); Paul Rivers, who has disabilities due to his heart condition (Sean Penn, White); and Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro, multiracial Latino including Puerto Rican, but the role is White-passing). Other than Cristina, women have flat characterizations, such as being obsessed with getting pregnant, etc. Brief stereotypes: Black teens play basketball in juvenile detention and get into a fight, there's a Latino gardener, and disabilities are portrayed as terminal and/or unwanted (one person uses the term "I am a f---ing amputee" to describe how it feels to have their family die).

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Characters shoot guns and get shot. An unconscious character lies in a pool of blood as a woman holds him, crying out for help. Two apparent suicide attempts -- one is bloody/gory. Hospital scenes include a main character who's intubated and hooked up to IVs, visible surgery scars, discussions of heart failure and death, etc. A character dies peacefully on-screen. A parent slaps his kids and yells at them. A parent and his children die in a car accident (off-screen, but police cars surround the scene, and a child's shoe is visible); the mom sobs when she hears the news. Scenes of grieving as a mom throws away children's bikes, struggles to enter their old room, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Characters have sex (bare breasts and thrusting visible), kiss, grope, and lie naked in bed together the morning after (bare backs, breasts, and a rear end are visible). Brief scene of an explicit pornographic film plays at a fertility clinic. Discussions of fertility complications, a past abortion, and getting pregnant.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k" and "s--t." Characters also say "bulls--t," "bastard," and "pr--k." A disabled man says someone "made [him] feel like a cripple." A character jokingly flips their middle finger.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Coke and Diet Coke are visible and mentioned a few times. Characters use Dawn dish detergent.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Main characters frequently smoke cigarettes. They also drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and take pills on-screen. A drunk driving incident kills three people (not depicted, but it's a key plot point).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that 21 Grams is the second film in writer Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro González Iñárritu 's "Death Trilogy" (the others are Amores Perros and Babel ). Violence includes on-screen suicide attempts, an unconscious character lying in a pool of blood as a woman cries out for help, and hospital scenes with sick characters. A parent and his children die in a car accident (off-screen); the mom sobs when she hears the news. A parent slaps their kids and verbally abuses them. Language includes several uses of "f--k" and "s--t," plus "bastard" and "pr--k." Explicit sex scenes show naked breasts, a rear end, and thrusting, and there's a brief glimpse of a pornographic film. Characters frequently smoke cigarettes. They also drink, snort cocaine, and take pills, and a drunk driving incident is a key plot point in the film. Though the film's on-screen content is almost entirely bleak, it does eventually conclude that hope can be found even in the darkest times. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In 21 GRAMS, a terrible collision shatters more than physical objects -- it shatters the very narrative of the story itself. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu uses clusters of brief scenes that act as a mosaic, gradually revealing what happened to devastate the lives of its three leads. Paul ( Sean Penn ) is dying. His heart is failing, and his wife wants to find a way to have his child. Jack ( Benicio Del Toro ) is struggling. He has come out of prison with a fierce new religious faith that has his wife and children a little uneasy. Cristina ( Naomi Watts ) is happy. She has overcome a substance abuse problem and is content with her husband and daughters. Then a corner is turned. A driver -- maybe in too much of a hurry to get to a birthday party, maybe having had a drink -- hits three pedestrians. Lives are lost. Another is devastated. Is there a way to go on?

Is It Any Good?

Penn gives one of the most sensitive performances of his career in this harrowing drama. He's completely convincing in 21 Grams as a math professor, showing an extraordinary range of subtle and complex emotions. Watts and Del Toro are also outstanding. Iñárritu uses a handheld camera and directs with a simple and intimate feeling, creating a raw experience as viewers go through the lead characters' (few) ups and (many) downs.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why Iñárritu shot 21 Grams in a nonlinear way. How would its impact have been different if all of the scenes were shown in order?

21 Grams uses high levels of violence, sex, and drug use to tell its story. Do you think this delivery method works? Does it strengthen or lessen its ultimate message about hope in dark times? Why, or why not?

If you've seen the other films in Iñárritu and Arriaga's "Death Trilogy," which include Amores Perros and Babel , which one is your favorite? What themes and messages link the three? In what ways are they different?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 20, 2003
On DVD or streaming : March 15, 2004
Cast : Benicio Del Toro , Naomi Watts , Sean Penn
Director : Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Inclusion Information : Latino directors, Latino actors, Female actors
Studio : Focus Features
Genre : Drama
Run time : 125 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language, sexuality, some violence and drug use.
Last updated : September 20, 2023

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’21 Grams’ Movie Review (2003)

By Brad Brevet

Along with the earlier release of Mystic River and the upcoming release of House of Sand and Fog , 21 Grams is one of the three somber movies of 2003 that will have the Academy members thinking Oscar.

In Alejandro GonzÃƒÂ¡lez IÃƒÂ±ÃƒÂ¡rritu’s first all-English film following 2000’s Amores Perros , which Roger Ebert referred to as “the work of a born filmmaker,” he pits three characters on a whirlwind ride as one tragic event creates a symbiotic circle that throws their lives and destinies together, in a story that will take them to the heights of love, the depths of revenge, and the promise of redemption.

21 Grams is devised of several short scenes, fragmented in a non-chronological order to create a puzzle put together by the lives of Paul Rivers (Penn), Cristina Peck (Watts), and Jack Jordan (Del Toro).

Paul Rivers is a college professor whose life is dangerously caught between this world and the next as he is in desperate need of a heart transplant and his wife Mary (Gainsbourg) is hoping she can get pregnant with his child through artificial insemination before it is too late.

Cristina Peck is a recovered drug addict and happily married woman with two daughters.

Jack Jordan is an ex-con and new-found lover of Christ since his time in the big house, while his doubting wife (Melissa Leo) is left to struggle to provide for their two children as Jack reaffirms his new found passion for the Lord.

The differences in these three lives are more than just demographics, and it takes a traffic accident, killing Cristina’s husband and two children to throw all three lives into a similar downward spiral where everything they had questioned in the past and all their demons are brought to light.

IÃƒÂ±ÃƒÂ¡rritu pulled every gram of acting out of his three stars notably Naomi Watts turns in a performance that has Oscar written all over hit as she struggles with her loss and the unsuspecting love that weaves its way into her life after her husband’s death. Not since Mulholland Dr. has Watts been given a chance to show her range as an actress, but after 21 Grams we may be given the chance to see a lot more of what she has to offer.

Complimenting Watts’ performance is Sean Penn as he gives a much more inspiring performance than could be taken from Mystic River earlier this year. His role as Paul Rivers is filled with such passion and instability and he manages to turn an overly dark performance into a memorable one as his character battles his heart ailments and is often at battle with his own conscience.

Comparing 21 Grams to Mystic River is only worth doing due to the dark nature of the film, the difference here is that the characters in 21 Grams are much more likeable and worth caring for as they wish to “do the right thing.” Whereas Mystic River contained characters just as dark and disturbed as the plot 21 Grams shows what can happen to people when destruction enters their lives and their morals are pit against their anger and confusion.

While the puzzle-piece nature of the flick presented in a fragmented style becomes a bit redundant toward the waning portions of the film, where a more linear format may have made the emotional impact of the final scene a bit more, well, emotional , 21 Grams impacts the viewer as you see what can happen to people when they are pushed to the limit once everything they cared for in the world is taken from them.

There is a sense of realism that is brought into 21 Grams due to that just about every shot was done with a hand-held camera, that takes away the static nature of a steady-cam, and brings the viewer into the world being described on the screen. There is a textured feel to each scene that helps describe the emotion and does some of the storytelling for you.

IÃƒÂ±ÃƒÂ¡rritu is quoted in the production notes saying, “We’re using hand-held again [as on Amores Perros ] but in a different way. It gives the freedom to be more flexible in the narrative and in the style of the film. Sometimes the camera is just an observer, breathing with the scene and being very passive; other times, it can be descriptive and very active. I tried to use the camera as a painter uses his brush.”

You may be wondering what the title 21 Grams actually means, or why the tagline for this movie is “They say 21 grams is the weight we lose when we die. The weight of five nickels, of a hummingbird, of a chocolate bar — and perhaps also of a human soul.” First off, it isn’t drugs, although there is a little drug use in the movie, but without giving too much away let’s just say that without those 21 grams your life would be considerably different.

21 Grams may be one of the most shocking films of 2003, but at the same time it is one of the most revealing. Lending emotion to a dark script this film is worth the watch, and definitely worth Oscar consideration.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Just when you thought Sean Penn had the Best Actor Oscar locked up for his career high in Mystic River , along comes tough competition: himself. In this scorcher of a drama from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu — it’s only his second film, after the brilliant Amores Perros , and his first in English — Penn burns with ferocity and feeling as Paul, a math professor faced with the possibility of death after a heart transplant. His wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) wants to have a baby, something of him left behind. Paul sees spirituality in terms of numbers, the twenty-one grams (the weight of a hummingbird, a chocolate bar or a stack of five nickels) that leave our bodies at death. Is it the weight of the soul?

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Clearly, Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga aren’t afraid of tackling big issues or splintering a plot — as they did in Amores Perros — to make audiences work at putting the pieces together. They intensify the puzzle by adding two equally damaged characters. Cristina (Naomi Watts), an ex-junkie, is the widow of the man whose heart Paul carries. Jack (Benicio Del Toro), the cause of the heart donor’s death, is an ex-con Jesus freak and alcoholic who loves and menaces his two kids and his wife (Melissa Leo, in a staggering portrayal of conflicted devotion). How these characters — all kicked hard by fate — unite in a brutal, erotic and achingly tender dance of death is for the film to tell you, not a review.

But know this: You won’t see more explosive acting this year. Penn’s continuing mastery of his craft amazes. Del Toro gets so far inside this ruined hulk that you flinch; he’s astonishing. And Watts is miraculous in an all-stops-out performance that bleeds with anger, guilt, sexual hunger and incalculable loss. That Inarritu shapes something redemptive out of blasted lives is proof that he is a filmmaker of rare and startling grace.

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Replete with thrills and twists: '21 grams' review

Is the soul heavy? It’s a doubt that was always there since the evolution of mankind. If there was something called soul, how will it look? Would it have weight? It was after a doctor claimed following several experiments that the human soul weighed 21 gms, that a lot of books and films came on the subject. ‘21 gms’ directed by debutant Bibin Krishna has a different story to tell. The film discusses the murder of a girl and the investigations surrounding it. For a newcomer, Bibin Krishna has made an intriguing film backed by solid script and performances.

When two brothers are murdered on back-to-back days, Crime Branch DYSP Nanda Kishore is made in charge of the investigation. He is also someone who has lost his only daughter. He is torn between being a responsible police officer and offering solace to his wife.

The tensions simmering between those who are alive, dead, and the cops investigating the murder are riddled with strife. Undoubtedly the film’s biggest strength is its solid screenplay. When things often lose track during the investigation the director manages to keep it together. The climax was unpredictable. A dialogue in the film which says a missing jigsaw puzzle will be found at the right moment was applicable to the climax. One has to applaud the writing which brilliantly puts together the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.

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The background music plays a crucial role in every thriller film. And Deepak Dev’s music keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Deepak Dev had said that because of the covid situation he had used the help of technology to create music instead of orchestra. The music director has played a huge role in raising the thriller mood of the film.

Your calculations might go for a toss in the film regarding who, why, where, and how it has been done. Anoop Menon the actor is able to handle the twists and turns in the narrative without reducing the thrill. Both Leona who plays Anoop’s wife and Anoop Menon could skillfully balance the tense as well as the emotionally charged moments in the film.

You can also catch director Ranjith in a new look in ‘21 gms’. It was indeed a treat to watch him in the role. Be it Lena’s SP, Chandu Nath’s Martin, Anu Mohan’s police assistant, Nandu’s Father Joseph, Prashant Alexander’s cowardly cop, or Sankar Ramakrishnan’s Shihab, they all did their characters well. Renji Panicker, Marina Michael, Bineesh Bastian, Manasa Radhakrishnan, and Aji John all managed to contain the suspense in the narrative.

The narrative keeps the audience glued to their seats. There isn’t a dull moment in the film. Newcomer Bibin Krishna has proved his mettle as a director through this film which is also technically superior. Jithu Damodaran’s cinematography and Appu N Bhattathiri’s editing succeed in keeping the suspense intact. A riveting suspense thriller indeed!

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Tuesday 29 September 2020

Movie review: 21 grams (2003).

Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) may die unless he receives a heart transplant. His marriage to Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is strained, but she is anyway eager to get pregnant by artificial insemination before he dies.
Jack Jordan (Benicio del Toro) is a petty criminal and repeat offender trying to go straight. He has embraced religion and now volunteers at the church run by Reverend John (Eddie Marsan). Jack is married to Marianne (Melissa Leo) and they have two young children.
Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) is a recovering drug addict, now happily married to Michael (Danny Huston) and raising two young daughters.

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A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to English émigré; Christina Peck, who's hiding a secret past; and Jack Jordan, an ex-convict who has found Jesus are brought together by a terrible accident which changes their lives. — Miguel Cane ([email protected])
The story is told in a non-linear manner. The following is a linear, chronological summary of the plot: Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro) is a former convict who is using his new-found religious faith to recover from drug addiction and alcoholism. Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) is a mathematics professor with a fatal heart condition. Unless he receives a new heart from an organ donor, he will not live longer than one month. Paul's wife wants him to donate his sperm so she can have his baby even if he dies. The two are civil to one another, yet distant. Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) is also a recovering drug addict and now lives a normal suburban life with a supportive husband and two children. She is a loving mother and active swimmer who has left her days of drugs and booze behind. These three separate stories/characters become tied together one evening when Jack kills Cristina's husband and children in a hit-and-run accident. Her husband's heart is donated to Paul, who begins his recovery. Cristina is devastated by the loss and returns to drugs and alcohol. Paul is eager to begin normal life again, but he hesitantly agrees to his wife's idea of surgery and artificial insemination as a last-ditch effort to get pregnant. During consultations with a doctor before the surgery, Paul learns that his wife had undergone an abortion after they had separated in the past. Angered, Paul ends the relationship. He becomes very inquisitive about whose heart he has. He learns from a private detective that the heart belonged to Cristina's husband and begins to follow the widowed Cristina around town. Jack is stricken with guilt following the accident. Despite his wife's protests to keep quiet and conceal his guilt, Jack tells her that his "duty is to God" and turns himself in. While incarcerated, he claims that God had betrayed him, loses his will to live and tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide. He is released after Cristina declines to press charges, as she realizes that putting Jack in prison will not bring her family back. When Jack is released, he is unable to reincorporate himself into normal family life, and instead leaves home to live as a transient, working a job of manual labor. Paul finds an opportunity to meet Cristina and eventually reveals how the two of them are connected. Desperately needing one another, they begin to develop a relationship. Though Paul has a new heart, his body is rejecting the surgery, and his outlook is grim. As Cristina begins to dwell more on her changed life and the death of her girls, she continually focuses on a desire to exact revenge on Jack. She goads Paul into agreeing to murder him. Paul meets with the private detective who originally found Cristina for him. Paul also purchases a gun from him and learns that Jack is living in a motel. Paul and Cristina check into the motel where Jack is also staying. When Jack is walking alone, Paul grabs him and leads him out into a clearing at gunpoint with the intention of killing him. Paul is unable to kill Jack, who himself is confused, shaking and pleading during the event. Paul tells Jack to "just disappear" then returns to the motel, lying to Cristina about Jack's death. Later that night, while they are sleeping, Paul and Cristina are awakened by a noise outside their door. It's Jack, who, still consumed by guilt and inner torment, orders Paul to kill him and end his misery. There is a struggle, and Cristina blind-sides Jack and begins to beat him with a wooden lamp. Paul has a heart attack and shoots himself to avoid dying from asphyxia. Jack and Cristina rush Paul to the hospital. Jack tells the police that he was the one who shot Paul but is released when his story is unable to be confirmed. The conflict between Cristina and Jack remains unresolved (they meet in the waiting room after Paul's death. If they converse, it is not shown.) Cristina learns in the hospital that she is pregnant. After Paul's death, Cristina is seen tentatively preparing for the new child in one of her daughters' bedrooms which she was previously unable to enter since her daughters' death, and Jack is shown returning to his family.

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