21 Grams

Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro

If you were fourteen when this movie came out and as such were more interested in Rogue Leader and the strange lumps growing out of the chests of your female friends like I was, chances are it slipped under your radar. And that's understandable. But you're, like, twenty now. You probably shave semi-regularly and go to the frat to hang out with coeds every day. And you need to see this movie.

First off, 21 Grams is not a movie about drugs. They have a supporting role, but the title doesn't mean 21 Grams of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Just in case you were thinking that.

The movie tells the stories of three people who are forever changed by one event, as well as the effects the change has on everyone close to them. The event is a car accident, and never before has a movie so brilliantly explored the connections which are broken, as well as formed, at the brutal epicenter of such an event. The overarching theme of the movie is that one moment, one decision, one person, can destroy lives, create new ones, mend broken ones. It is a beautiful and moving film that succeeds on every level a drama should, especially one of this intensity. The title comes from the theory that, upon death, the body loses twenty-one grams—the apparent weight of a person's departing soul.

I've never heard of Sr. Iñárritu before, but his direction in this piece is masterful. Hopping between different periods in the lives of three main characters, what starts out as a fairly chaotic and confusing collection of shots eventually coalesces into a concrete whole that gives closure and a modicum of peace of mind. The camera work is almost if not entirely handheld, creating a very intimate feel. All in all, it's just a damn good piece of cinema.

Watts, Penn, del Toro...all fantastic actors, in a fantastic movie. They're broken, they're real, they're human. Emotion flows from them like a river. A river of emotion. Do I really need to sell this any more?

This film has won a cavalcade of awards for Best Everything, and for once I agree with the Academy: the actors, the writing, the direction, everything comes together in one of those rare movies that reminds us of who we are, and that that person is imperfect, possibly even broken— but still capable of feeling something, still human. If you don't believe me, just check it out. You might be suprised by what's in your twenty-one grams.