21 GRAMS

ICON FILM DISTRIBUTION

RELEASED 5 March 2004

Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) is mortally ill and awaiting a heart transplant. Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) is a good wife to Michael (Danny Huston) and loving mother to two little girls. Ex-con Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro) struggles to provide for his two children while reaffirming his commitment to religion. A tragic accident that claims several lives pushes each character towards an eventual and drastic meeting.

‘21 Grams’ sucessfully explores the emotionally and physically charged existences of three people over a period of several months. As the film enigmatically tells us at the beginning, twenty-one grams is the weight we lose when we die. It is the weight of a hummingbird, or a chocolate bar, or perhaps also of a human soul. Death is never more than a heartbeat away from each character. Multiple themes of loss, addiction, love, vengeance, faith, hope, and redemption are delved in and out of. Although nearly every shot in ‘21 Grams’ was shot with a hand-held camera, there is none of the headache-inducing shakiness you often get, only an intense feeling of being right in the thick of things.

Oscar-nominated Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu extracts powerful performances from all three leads, with possibly Naomi Watts bagging the top honours. Both Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro are Oscar-nominated. Each character is multi-dimensional with both good and bad points. The story plays out in a non-linear way, veering back and forwards in time and from character to character, an intriguing puzzle which is drawn out slighty towards the end.‘21 Grams’ is a depressing story so fantastically acted you can’t help but be impressed.

THREE OUT OF FIVE