21 Grams

Focus Features presents

Starring: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts

Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez

Rating:*****

Plot: Three different people with different lives are suddenly and dramatically put together and sadly only death can come out of the sictuation. How much goes guilt and death weigh. All I know is this film weighs as much as an Oscar.

Acting: Now the PLOT section of my review may not have made that much sense and I am sorry. It's just this movie is hard to explain since I do not want to ruin anything for anyone. This is a character movie with three amazingly talented actors who should each get awards this year for this film. Will start with Sean Penn who plays a man who has heart disease and lives with a woman who cares more about having a baby then him. Penn is simply amazing and the fact he is in two of my top ten movies this year is huge. He was in Mystic River which if you have not seen yet you need to go right now and go see it. His talent is hard to focus on because it is so subtle. He plays a sympathetic character but he isn't all that sympathetic and I can't explain how he pulled it off. Well anyway his character needing a heart transplant and gets one off of a horrible event. After the operation he goes off in search of the family who gave him the heart. This is where Naomi Watts comes in, I will not explain the event that happens in which the heart is given to Penn but Penn and Watts's characters meet. Of course they have a relationship but one not really based off of love, more like sex and revenge. Del Toro plays a man who has been in and out of prison but tries his best to be a father to his son and young daughter, he turns to God for guidence put the past never leaves him. These three characters run into each other and the story comes together. Each performance is haunting. Naomi Watts who everyone might remember from The Ring I have loved everything this woman has been in, yes even Le Divorce I like her because after such a big turn out in The Ring she does this small powerful film. Benicio Del Toro is simply an acting force of are time. Being in Traffic to one of my favorite action movies called The Hunted he decides to play a character with so many problems Dr. Phil would shit his pants. These three brilliant actors in one film is almost too much but perfect in every scene.

Directing/Writing: Director Alejandro Gonzalez who some may remember did Amores Perros well he does a brilliant job again. The film is amazingly edited since in the film we bounce back and fourth from the end to the beginning to the middle and then back to the end. It is so well timed it almost surpasses Memento's great editing style. The also notable fact is that the film is very real, nothing seems Hollywood or over the top everything is very serious. No character gets the audiences true respect or sympathy since everyone in real life has sins and we see them in these characters. Now I must warn you if you are having a bad day, don't see this movie go see Bad Santa or something. This movie is depressing you will realize how much life sucks and how much greed and anger controls this world. On the plus side you'll be watching one great and powerful film.

Overall: Brilliant. That is a bout it. I'd like to note after coming out of this movie I loved movies. With all the stupid film shit audiences haft to go through like Elf and other films. Go out to some small theatre and see movies like 21 Grams.