21 Grams

A spellbinding meditation on fate and redemption from writer Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro González Iñárritu (the team behind the similarly structured Amores Perros), 21 Grams is a non-linear collage of three lives on a tragic collision course. Blessed with innovative storytelling and the raw, stellar performances of Sean Penn (as a dying math professor), Naomi Watts (as a former addict, now a happy suburban mom), and Benicio Del Toro (as a religious ex-con), the film provides a splintered vision of the spiraling turmoil that entwines them all in the wake of a terrible traffic accident. Combining grainy, viscerally intimate photography and interlaced storytelling, Iñárritu slowly puts puzzle pieces of raw emotion and formative events into place to reveal how these characters' lives have been suddenly torn apart by one moment. Take away the wistfully philosophical voiceover that bookends the picture (a sure sign that the filmmakers didn't know what else to do for a beginning or an end), and 21 Grams is a near tour de force on all counts. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review—Oct. 3, 2006—Focus, 125 min., R, $19.98—Making its second appearance on DVD, 2003's 21 Grams (Collector's Edition) features an excellent transfer with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround sound. DVD extras include the 20-minute “making-of” featurette “21 Grams: In Fragments,” and trailers. Bottom line: the single featurette hardly seems to warrant the “collector's edition” tag—if you already own the original release, this upgrade is unnecessary, but is worth picking up if you don't.]