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Photo © Focus Features
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21 Grams
Drama
2 hrs. 05 min.
November 21, 2003
R for language, sexuality, some violence and drug use
Focus Features
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Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, and Naomi Watts
Directed By: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Produced By: Ted Hope, Robert Solerno, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Screenplay By: Guillermo Arriaga
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Reviewed
By: Wellington Lee
Rated 2.78/5
Try to recall Adaptation, Gangs of New York, Memento or any flashback action/drama.
Then imagine continuous yet totally fluid cuts from the three main characters'
pasts to the present. Just another absorbing melodrama?Hardly. When you think
nothing could top this scene of Sean Penn's or Benicio del Torro, we are rolled
over into another even more gripping and award winning portrayal in the next.
Wow!
Writer/director Alejandro g. Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga have blasted
a home run in Inarritu's sophomore English, feature. Jack (Benicio del Toro:"Traffic"; "The
Pledge") is an ex con turned sincere 'Born Again' with a devoted wife and two
small children. Despite those puffy eyes and face (del Torro's hallmark), Jack
communicates the burden of a tattooed con trying to keep a job, discipline his
kids and nurture his touching faith. Christine (Naomi Watts:"Mulholland Drive")
is a happily married housewife emotionally destroyed by the same devasting car
accident that Jack was involved in. Most of Christine's scenes are post accident
as she slips back into alchohol and drugs to cope with her pain. Dir.Inarritu
has inspiringly directed a restrained yet no less intense performance from Penn,
highlighting Watt's potent screen time portrayal of grief. Wound up Del Torro
(Jack) prays to keep his temper and fatalism just under his skin. Naomi cries
real tears in most every scene, and her inimitable, passionate portrayal will
put more screenplays at her feet than the handful of deca- million ($per role)
actresses are accustomed to. Paul (Sean Penn:"I Am Sam")is a math prof. in need
of a heart transplant. The screenplay connects him via an original plot path
to Christine and Jack. Paul's estranged wife Mary has returned to nurse him until
they can locate a donor heart. Penn's rare, subtle performance is so captivating.
Paul does get a new heart and the energy to flirt with and engage the grieving
Christine, for a time. |
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