Friday November 25, 2011
21 Grams (2003) directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
21 Grams is an intricately woven story centered around three tragically flawed characters whose fates slowly become intertwined with each others. The narrative is as fractured as the characters, telling the story out of order, constantly shifting perspective and time, leaving you wondering how it all fits together throughout most of the movie. It takes a whole 30 minutes before you can even begin to sort out the basics and slowly put the pieces together. Whenever I watch a film with these distinct narratives, whether it be a flashback with the end at the beginning like in Double Indemnity or telling the story backwards like in Memento or out of order like in Pulp Fiction, I always ask myself does this make the movie better or is it just a gimmick? Does it reveal more about the story and the characters? Does it create a deeper sense of suspense or drama? These are particularly important questions regarding 21 Grams because this film starts out completely jumbled without any way to make sense of anything. When a film is constructed in this manner, the expectations of the viewer go way up because they expect a big payoff in the end to reward them for their patience and effort. 21 Grams is interesting in that the payoff isn't at the end at all, but rather in the process.
What I mean by that is that the ending isn't a mind blowing revelation nor a surprise. It may almost be considered a let down, but only because of how good the rest of the film leading up to those final moments are. The strength of the film lies in the three compelling characters played brilliantly by Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and particularly Naomi Watts. Each character is given their moment to shine (and falter). Because of the structure of the film, we see them at various stages in their lives in seemingly no particular order. What this does is cause us to focus on their stories and wonder where it all went wrong for them to reach that breaking point. Because we know that tragedy is in store for them, scenes that we know come before carry much more weight. An innocent moment becomes all the more heartbreaking because we know there are no more left for them.
Sean Penn plays Paul, who we first see lying in a hospital bed. We have no idea how or when he got there. It is revealed that he is dying and needs a heart transplant but even then we are not sure if this beginning scene has anything to do with his heart condition. He is married to a woman named Mary but in an early snippet we see him lying in bed with Naomi Watt's character Christine. Christine is seen at a support group talking about her dark past, but we find out that she is happily married with kids but not with Paul. And finally there is Benicio Del Toro as Jack, an ex-con who has turned to Jesus to right his ways. All three of these characters are tragically flawed and show a great deal of vulnerability. These powerful performances drive the film. Even when we don't know what the hell is going on, we are still captivated because of how compelling these characters are. Christine suffers dearly in the film and Watts displays such a great range of emotion from depression and anger to unrelenting despair.
In fact the whole film has a feeling of despair and foreboding which is accented by Inarritu's jumbled film structure. It is a style he has become known for following up 21 Grams with his critically acclaimed Babel. The performances are so strong that the film could have probably been just as powerful if told from beginning to end, but by fracturing the narrative, not only does he add in an element of mystery and suspense but also makes the performances and the individual stories all the more compelling.
Grade: A
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