Jack, a former convict who now turned into a Christian preacher, accidentally hits a man and his two daughters on the street with his car. Jack panics and drives off, leaving the three there to die. The deceased man's wife, Cristina, is now both a widow and a mother who lost her two children. Her late husband's heart is transplanted into Paul, a mathematics professor. Paul finds out about the life of his donor and makes contact with Cristina, starting a relationship. This, however, means the end of Paul's relationship with Mary, who wanted to have a baby with him. Cristina persuades Paul to kill Jack, but he let's him go. Jack later enters into their apartment and demands to be shot, but in the chaos, Paul shoots himself and dies. Jack turns himself to the police, claiming he shot Paul, but is let go because the investigation finds out it is a lie.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2nd feature length film, and his first in the US, is a contemplative, ambitious and artistic achievement, but the problem is that it is basically a melodrama—just with better cinematography and presented in nonlinear narrative. The dialogue and plot points are bland and standard, thereby making the storyline limited, without much creativity. Another problem is that Inarritu already used this trick of disjointed narrative, with scenes being shown randomly out of order throughout the film, in his better debut "Amores perros"—and peculiarly, even in his next film, "Babel". The aesthetic images are thus applied as a "make up" to try to improve the routine story, and this works, actually. However, the main highlight are the three excellent lead actors who give outstanding performances, playing their roles with enthusiasm even in the most pale scenes. The standout among these three standout actors is Naomi Watts, who gives another stunning performance as Cristina, finding herself in a peculiar situation where she has a relationship with Paul, who has the transplanted heart of her late husband. The character of Jack (Benicio del Toro) is also fascinating: he was an ex-convict, reformed, became a Christian pastor who tries to convert juvenile delinquents (he is even ready to engage in a physical fight with one punk to convert him!) and implement religious teaching literally (when his son slaps his daughter, Jack forces her to "turn her other cheeck", i.e. allow her brother to slap her other hand), perpetrated a hit-and-run accident, and now lost his faith (and purpose in life) again. The vague ending feels incomplete and unfinished, leaving the whole point of "21 Grams" somewhat elusive, yet Inarritu shows his talent by making it more enlightened than expected.
Grade:++
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