''21 Grams'' is a 2003 American
psychological drama film directed by
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hum ...
from a screenplay by
Guillermo Arriaga
Guillermo Arriaga Jordán (; born 13 March 1958) is a Mexican author, screenwriter, director and producer. Self-defined as "a hunter who works as a writer," he is best known for his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and BAFTA Award f ...
. The film stars
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008).
Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
,
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
,
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song " Lemo ...
,
Danny Huston
Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.
He is known for h ...
and
Benicio Del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen A ...
. The second part of Arriaga's and Iñárritu's "Trilogy of Death", preceded by ''
Amores perros
''Amores perros'' is a 2000 Mexican psychological drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Guillermo Arriaga, based on a story by them both. ''Amores perros'' is the first installmen ...
'' (2000) and followed by ''
Babel
Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to:
Arts and media Written works Books
*Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith
* Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu
* Babel (20 ...
'' (2006), ''21 Grams'' interweaves several plot lines in a
nonlinear arrangement.
The film's plot is about the consequences of a tragic
hit-and-run
In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions.
Additional obligation
In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...
accident. Penn plays a critically ill mathematician, Watts plays a grief-stricken mother, and Del Toro plays a
born-again Christian
Born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and sepa ...
ex-convict whose faith is sorely tested in the aftermath of the accident. The three main characters each have "past", "present" and "future" story threads, which are shown as non-linear fragments that punctuate elements of the overall story, all imminently coming toward each other and coalescing as the story progresses. The film grossed $60.4 million on a $20 million budget and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Iñárritú's direction, Arriaga's screenplay and Watts' and Del Toro's performances. Watts and Del Toro were nominated for
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
and
Best Supporting Actor at the
76th Academy Awards
The 76th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2003 and took place on February 29, 2004, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 ...
.
Plot
The story is told in a
nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
manner. The following is a chronological summary of the plot:
Jack Jordan is a former convict who is using his new-found religious faith to recover from drug addiction and alcoholism. Paul Rivers is a
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
professor with a dedicated wife, Mary, and has a fatal heart condition. Unless he receives a new heart from an organ donor, he will not live longer than a month. Mary wants him to donate his sperm so she can have his baby even if he dies. Cristina Peck is a recovering drug addict and now lives a normal suburban life with a supportive husband and two children. She is a loving mother and active swimmer who has left behind her days of drugs and alcohol. These three separate stories/characters become tied together one evening when Jack kills Cristina's husband and children in a
hit-and-run
In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions.
Additional obligation
In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...
accident. Cristina's husband's heart is donated to Paul, who begins his recovery.
Cristina is devastated by the loss and returns to drugs and alcohol. Paul is eager to begin normal life again, but he hesitantly agrees to his wife's idea of artificial insemination as a last-ditch effort to get pregnant. During consultations with a doctor before the procedure, Paul learns about an
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
that Mary had undergone after they had separated in the past. Angered, Paul ends the relationship. He becomes very inquisitive about whose heart he has. He learns from a private detective that the heart belonged to Cristina's husband and begins to follow the widowed Cristina around town.
Jack is stricken with guilt following the accident and starts using drugs again. Despite his wife's protests to keep quiet and conceal his guilt, Jack tells her that it is his "duty is to God" and turns himself in. While incarcerated, he clashes verbally with a pastor who had helped him after his last incarceration, claims that God had betrayed him, loses his will to live and attempts suicide. He is released after Cristina declines to press charges against him, as she realizes that incarcerating Jack will not bring her family back. When Jack is released, he is unable to reincorporate himself into normal family life, and instead leaves home to live as a transient, working as a manual laborer.
Paul finds an opportunity to meet Cristina and eventually reveals how the two of them are connected. She is initially furious and forces him out, but quickly reconsiders. Desperately needing each other, they continue their relationship. Though Paul has a new heart, his body is
rejecting the transplant and his outlook is grim. As Cristina begins to dwell more on her changed life and the death of her family, she becomes obsessed with taking revenge against Jack. She goads Paul into agreeing to murder him.
Paul meets with the private detective who originally found Cristina for him. He tells Paul that Jack is living in a motel and sells Paul a gun. Paul and Cristina check into the motel where Jack is staying. When Jack is walking alone, Paul grabs him and leads him out into a clearing at gunpoint intending to kill him. However, Paul is unable to kill Jack, who himself is confused, shaking and pleading during the event. Paul fires three shots into the ground and tells Jack to "just disappear," then returns to the motel, lying to Cristina about Jack's death. Later that night, while they are sleeping, Paul and Cristina are awakened by a noise outside their door. It's Jack, who, still consumed by guilt, orders Paul to actually kill him and end his misery. A struggle ensues, during which Cristina blind-sides Jack and starts beating him with a wooden lamp. Paul collapses, gets hold of the gun, and accidentally shoots himself.
Jack and Cristina rush Paul to the hospital. Still believing he deserves to be punished for his hit-and-run, Jack tells the police that he was the one who shot Paul, but is released when his story cannot be confirmed. Paul dies, and the conflict between Cristina and Jack remains unresolved (they meet in the waiting room after Paul's death; if they have a conversation, it is not shown). When Cristina offers to donate blood for Paul in the hospital, she learns that she is pregnant; the doctor urges Cristina to quit using drugs. After Paul's death, Cristina is seen tentatively preparing for the new child in one of her daughter's bedrooms, which she had previously been unable to enter after her daughter's death. Jack is shown returning to his family.
Cast
*
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008).
Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
as Paul Rivers
*
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
as Cristina Peck
*
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen A ...
as Jack Jordan
*
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song " Lemo ...
as Mary Rivers
*
Melissa Leo
Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Critics' Choice A ...
as Marianne Jordan
*
Danny Huston
Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.
He is known for h ...
as Michael
*
John Rubinstein
John Rubinstein (born December 8, 1946) is an American actor, composer and director.
Early life
Rubinstein is the son of Polish parents. His mother, Aniela (née Młynarska), a dancer and writer, was a Roman Catholic native of Warsaw, the dau ...
as Gynecologist
*
Clea DuVall
Clea Helen D'Etienne DuVall (born September 25, 1977) is an American actress, writer, producer, and director. She is known for her appearances in the films ''The Faculty'' (1998), '' She's All That''; '' But I'm a Cheerleader''; ''Girl, Interrup ...
as Claudia
*
Eddie Marsan
Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008).
He has feature ...
as Reverend John
* Marc Thomas Musso as Freddy
*
Paul Calderón
Paul Calderón is a Puerto Rican actor, writer, director and producer. He is a founding member of the Touchstone Theatre, the American Folk Theatre and the LAByrinth Theater Company. He is also a member of the Actors Studio, auditioning and a ...
as Brown
*
Denis O'Hare
Denis Patrick Seamus O'Hare (born January 17, 1962) is an American actor, singer, and author noted for his award-winning performances in the plays '' Take Me Out'' and ''Sweet Charity'', as well as portraying vampire king Russell Edgington on HB ...
as Dr. Rothberg
*
Kevin Chapman
Kevin Chapman (born July 29, 1962) is an American actor known for playing an assortment of characters ranging from the obnoxious brother Terrence Garrity in FX's '' Rescue Me'' to street enforcer Val Savage in Clint Eastwood's ''Mystic River'' ...
as Alan
*
Lew Temple
Lew Temple (born October 2, 1967) is an American actor, known for his roles as Locus Fender in the action film, '' Domino'', Cal, the diner manager in the comedy-drama '' Waitress'', and Axel in the third season of '' The Walking Dead''.
Early ...
as County Sheriff
* Carly Nahon as Cathy
Cinematic technique
The distinctive stylistic elements of the film's cinematography are its gritty,
hand-held
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
shots, the extensive use of the
bleach bypass
Bleach bypass, also known as skip bleach or silver retention, is a chemical effect which entails either the partial or complete skipping of the bleaching function during the processing of a color film. By doing this, the silver is retained in t ...
process, and the use of
color casts. All these techniques were used to distinguish each character's storyline, to describe the development of the stories, and to mark changes in the character's life balance. Given the non-linear presentation of the events and the interweaving of the three narratives, these elements serve as visual hints to help the viewer collocate the events chronologically. In an interview on
American Cinematographer
''American Cinematographer'' is a magazine published monthly by the American Society of Cinematographers. It focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, covering domestic and foreign feature productions, television productions, short films, mu ...
, Rodrigo Prieto pointed out that "there were cues
n the scriptto help you understand where you were in the chronology of each story, but I felt we should
ave supportedthat visually."
Paul's story is pictured with cool colors, Jack's story uses warm colors, and Cristina's story is presented neutrally. In addition, the stories were shot with different
film stocks to obtain different
grain structures through their progression: "when things were looking up for the characters, we'd use a finer-grained stock", while "as things get more complex, we go to a heavier grain", explained Prieto. Thorough experimentation had been necessary to understand how to achieve the desired effects with
color palettes, lighting and wardrobe, and how each of these elements interacted with the bleach bypass process. "We kept making tests, and we arrived at the final scheme through discovery, not design ... We couldn't take anything for granted—we were surprised by the test results every time!" recalled Prieto.
Both Iñárritu and Prieto wanted to accomplish a spontaneous, instinctive, yet transparent camerawork "to create the feeling that the camera was present with the actors, moving, reacting and breathing with them". Handheld camera was always used, even on static shots. Camerawork becomes more unstable and
frame composition becomes deliberately unbalanced to reflect the character's life steadiness: "sometimes we wanted to have too much or too little headroom in the frame", explained Prieto. In their most difficult moments, characters are depicted in wide shots and placed in the corners of the frame to appear small and lonely. Prieto refers to these shots as "abandoning angles".
Title
The title refers to an experiment in 1907 which attempted to show
scientific proof
Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical ...
of the existence of the
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
by recording a loss of
body weight
Human body weight is a person's mass or weight.
Strictly speaking, body weight is the measurement of weight without items located on the person. Practically though, body weight may be measured with clothes on, but without shoes or heavy accessor ...
(said to represent the departure of the soul) immediately following death. Referred to as the
21 grams experiment as one subject lost "three-fourths of an ounce" (21.3
gram
The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram.
Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...
s), the experiment is regarded by the scientific community as flawed and unreliable, though it has been credited with popularizing the concept that the soul weighs 21 grams.
Reception
Critical response
The film holds an 81% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 182 reviews with an average rating of 7.50/10. The critical consensus states that "Alejandro González Iñárritu deftly weaves an uncommonly structured narrative with panache in ''21 Grams'', a stylish, haunting drama full of fine performances."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
, for example, questioned the use of non-linear narrative, but praised the acting and said of the film overall: "It grips us, moves us, astonishes us."
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell (born December 6, 1958) is an American film critic, host of the public radio show ''The Treatment'', and visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He has served as a film critic for the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', the ''LA Weekly ...
also praised the acting and called the film "an extraordinarily satisfying vision" that "may well be the crowning work of this year."
[(October 18, 2003)]
"Movie Review ''21 Grams'' (2003)"
''The New York Times''. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
Box office
The film had a worldwide gross of approximately $60 million on a budget of an estimated $20 million.
Accolades
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
and
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen A ...
received several awards and nominations for their performances in the film, including
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
and
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1952 to recognize outstanding performances in movie an ...
nominations in the categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Sean Penn received many dual nominations in the Best Actor category for his roles in both this film and ''
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...
''.
See also
*
Hyperlink cinema
Hyperlink cinema is a style of filmmaking characterised by complex or multilinear narrative structures with multiple characters under one unifying theme.
History
The term was coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the f ...
– the film style of using multiple inter-connected story lines.
References
External links
* – archived fro
the originalon March 31, 2019
*
*
*
*
from
American Cinematographer
''American Cinematographer'' is a magazine published monthly by the American Society of Cinematographers. It focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, covering domestic and foreign feature productions, television productions, short films, mu ...
The science behind ''21 Grams''at
ABC Online
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:21 Grams
2003 films
2003 crime drama films
2003 crime thriller films
American crime drama films
American crime thriller films
2000s English-language films
Films directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Films with screenplays by Guillermo Arriaga
American anthology films
Films about grieving
Films about mathematics
Films about suicide
Films shot in New Mexico
Films shot in Tennessee
American nonlinear narrative films
2003 independent films
Focus Features films
Icon Productions films
Films scored by Gustavo Santaolalla
Hyperlink films
2000s American films