| . |
21 Grams
(Reviewed October 25, 2003)
-
Whaddaya wanna bet that every award this generally excellent movie rightfully deserves to win will go instead to that overrated piece of badly acted, laughably earnest piece of Hollywood junk known as
"Mystic River?"
Sean Penn is in both films, and serves as the perfect illustration of why "21 Grams" succeeds while the bafflingly overpraised "Mystic River" fails. Penn overacts to the point of embarrassment in
"Mystic River," thugging it up like a rubber-faced Lord of Flatbush who can't decide whether he is Brando on poppers or DeNiro on a crying jag. In "21 Grams," though, director Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu more often than not manages to keep him reined in to genuinely human dimensions. Even when you detect the prick beneath the nice-guy veneer (and sometimes vice-versa), you have no trouble
believing that's exactly how the character he is playing would come across in real life.
The best thing about "21 Grams," in fact, is that virtually every member of the cast is remarkably believable. It's hard to reveal what this movie is "about" without ruining a lot of surprises, but
suffice it to say that the paths of several unrelated characters cross as the result of a traffic accident. (If that sounds familiar, it's because the same thing happened in Inarritu's last feature, "Amores Perros" --
but this is pretty much the only thing the two movies have in common.) The movie flits back and forth in time so much you'll wonder if it was edited with a Cuisinart, and the "shaky-cam" handheld shots
can get irritating. Still, it's remarkable how well everything fits neatly in place by the time the credits roll. Trust me, you don't want to know too much about "28 Grams" going in, because
putting the pieces together is so rewarding.
Naomi Watts is amazingly good as a suburban housewife who finds herself in a tragic downward spiral. (She also gifts us with a topless scene that is gasp-inducingly impressive; not to be crude or
anything, but her oversized nipples may be the eighth and ninth wonders of the world). Benicio Del Toro is so moving and tragic that he should be a lock for an Oscar nomination, playing a
bottom-rung tough guy trying his damnedest to do the right thing but getting screwed at every turn. Penn's character and his wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are a couple who have literally life-or-death
differences about where their marriage is going.
The movie isn't perfect. At one point, Watts's character refuses to do something that she or anyone else in her position most definitely WOULD do without a second's hesitation. The screenwriter
seems to have made her step out of character this way to ensure that the rest of the plot wouldn't collapse, but he didn't seem to realize that the whole situation could have been finessed quite easily to the same end. This may be why the mistake isn't terribly troubling; things could have ended up the same way no matter what Watts did, so it's easy to give him a pass.
Also, one aspect of the film's ending is a tired, frustrating cliche that will make you roll your eyes and breathe a disappointed sigh. But in the same way that "Dirty Pretty Things" still ranks as one
of the year's best movies even though it has a silly plot, "21 Grams" has enough to recommend it that a flaw in the tapestry doesn't ruin its overall beauty.
Like "Dirty Pretty Things," it's a movie for actual grown-ups, which damn near qualifies as being a miracle these days.
Back Row Grade: A-
(Return to index by closing this window)
|
. |