Sometimes, film can provide an escape from life's harsh realties. "21 Grams" takes you deep inside the unimaginable pain of others, and shakes you up for good measure.
Inarritu's follow-up to "Amores Perros" boasts the high caliber cast of Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Del Toro plays ex-con Jack Jordon, a heavily tattooed, gruff man who has zealously turned to God to repent for the sins of his past. Naomi Watts is upper-class wife and mother Christina Peck, a recovering substance abuser who has put her past life behind her. Sean Penn plays college professor Paul Rivers, a dying man awaiting a heart transplant who steals forbidden cigarettes in the bathroom to the distress of his exhausted wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Their worlds come together unhappily in a deadly conclusion, foretold in the shocking opening scene, which offers hope where there appears to be none, and for one unlikely character, redemption. (I won't say more. I worked hard to piece together the plot. I was stunned when Naomi Watts is stunned, and I would hate to rob you of the one true joy of Inarritu's emotionally exhausting film: discovery.
Sean Penn is currently earning lavish praise as the Great American actor for his gut-wrenching performance in Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River." He will more than likely earn an Oscar nomination and if his controversial politics don't interfere, might very well win it, but he is far more interesting in "21 Grams." Penn gives a much quieter performance as Jack Rivers. In Eastwood's film, Penn was a force of emotion, all rage and tears and macho bluster, but in "21 Grams," he quietly and intuitively reacts to circumstance.
Naomi Watts is the one who gets to show the big emotions: her grief is enough to knock you out. Del Toro is positively creepy. In one chilling scene, his young son reaches across the dinner table to slap his little sister. When his wife (Melissa Leo) asks her husband to reprimand theboy, invoking the name of Jesus Christ, he insists that his son slap the little girl's other arm instead.
The most curious thing about "21 Grams" is that because of the narrative structure, you always know what lies ahead, and yet strangely enough, you don't. You anticipate scenes before they happen, and are grateful when Inarritu fills in the narrative holes. The film is challenging, uncomfortable, and uniquely moving.
