In a truly amazing display of style and grace, 21 Grams takes a story of tragedy and pain and really twists the knife when we discover how it’s all connected. This is indeed a tragedy as a man (Benicio Del Toro, Snatch) who has been given much, an opportunity to overcome the pain and sins of his father, to be a faithful father and husband, is the perpetrator of a tragic accident, and makes some bad choices. He ends up crashing and killing another man with two young daughters in towe. In the ensuing trial, he is given a 4 year sentence. When he gets out, his faith and character are ruined, and he goes to work in the oil rigs, abandoning his family and leaving the church far behind in another life.
Meanwhile, the man who was killed was an organ donor, and his heart is given to a man who desperately needs a transplant (Sean Penn, Mystic River). However, as inevitably happens, the world is connected at every point, and Penn goes in search of his donor, only to find the mans widow (Naomi Watts, I Heart Huckabees), embittered and scared. He falls for her, and in the process, they go in search of her husbands killer, kind of a strange, desperate vengence twist. The ending is so sad, and so bizarre.
The non-linear style is used very effectively, and the dialogue and acting are so impassioned and stark, there’s just no way you can’t feel the pressures and know the pain of all the characters involved. The color and frame have a cold metallic matrix-esque feel, as if to say "Life is hard, but 21 Grams shows it at its hardest" A 2 to be watched again.
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