21 Grams (Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, 2003)
Tragic, philsophical, and serious as a heart transplant, with hand-held camerawork, grainy photography, and three huge, nakedly emotional performances. Arty Oscar bait, in other words. Unlike Pulp Fiction or The Sweet Hereafter (or even Iñárritu’s debut, Amores Perros), the scrambled chronology doesn’t really provide any particular narrative payoff—it’s interesting on a surface level (and it keeps you on your toes), but I think the movie would play about the same without it. Ultimately, it’s all a bit too much, with plenty of ponderous dialogue about fate, coincidence, divine plans and such (Penn’s final voiceover set my teeth on edge), and a storyline just this side of ludicrous. Still, it’s undeniably well-crafted and at times quite moving. Also Penn, Watts and especially Del Toro are excellent, in an Oscar bait kind of way. 65
