Saturday, May 29, 2004
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Belated Film Reviews21 Grams (Inarritu, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro, 2003): 5.5/10
Poster child for gimmicky movies where the acting drips with the weight of the world, and where crying is inevitable. Sean Penn plays a mathmatician in this one, but you wouldn't know it if the filmmakers didn't need to explain the title of the movie. Frankly, mathematics has nothing to do with anything. Apparently the title does. The chronology of the film is cut-up to retain a relationship with three intertwining narratives. It is also used to eliminate suspense so that they could throw in a last-minute twist. The plot goes like this:
Someone needs a heart. Someone kills a man. Man is Someone's husband. Someone gets heart of dead husband. Someone wants to find Someone who lost husband. Someone who lost husband wants Someone who has heart to kill Someone who killed husband.
Excited? Good. Sean Penn stars as Someone who needs a heart. Naomi Watts stars as Someone who lost husband (read: heart). Benicio del Toro stars as the other Someone.
