21 Grams [Blu-ray]

21 grams is the kind of movie that makes you contemplate your own life and existence, and forces you to ponder the the meaning and interconnectedness of life itself. The movie sports a not-too complicated and jaw-droppingly ironic plot. The death of a man and his two children brings the lives of 3 people together in an odd and tragic turn of events. The really unique thing about the movie I felt was the way in which it was shot. Scenes from the movie are not only displayed out of chronological order, but scattered throughout the length of the movie in a seemingly random order. This was sheer briliance. It's also why you might find the plot a little hard to follow and a bit confusing at first. You'll constantly be asking which one was that, who was that guy, what just happened, where did that come from. For me this served two purposes: one it kept the movie very interesting and in deed captivating from begining to end (the movie would probably have felt more slow and dry if done traditionaly), two it almost seems like a metaphor for life. An illustration of what the movie is all about and trying to say. Sequences of scenes often make no sense untill later on, just as in life you often dont understand what happened untill looking back and connecting all the dots. Also the constant feeling of confusion and randomness does well to push the point that life just seems to happen and no one really knows what's going on or what's connected. The style of the shooting also does a great job of making you feel as if you arent watching a movie, but rather are just witnessing glimpses of moments of the actual lives of these people, scattered and momentarily incoherent untill finally we see how it's all connected. This really was fantastic I thought and very effective. The emotional impact is also extremely noteworthy. The movie studies how odd the events in life are, and how cruel life can be. Grief is one of the prime components of the film and the examination of how every action in the world bares a reaction. The events in the movie will often leave you just sitting there silent looking at the screen with a knot in your gut. Anyone who has experienced pain and loss will relate in a most personal way. The acting for this film was also excellent throughout. The whole cast did a great job, and the performances are not just believable but inspired. Most of all 21 grams pushes the point that we are all just kind of floating along through life, bumping into each other and being either victim or benefactor to a never ending line of factors that are beyond our control. is it fate, destiny, or the plan of some divine diety that puts us where we are, or is the universe just meaningless and we are all merely billiard balls randomly bumping into one another. 21 Grams examines, but offers no real answer to all these questions, and will at very least provide for some interesting conversation afterwards. If you're the type of person who likes phillosophy, or enjoys a well-done artistic movie about life that really makes you think, then this movie is for you.

Great movie.

There are certain movies out there that are extremely depressing, but one can not help themselves but want to see them more than one time. In 21 grams Gonzalez Inarritu excels past his 1st feature film Amores Perros. Although Amores Perros was a breakthrough of creativity in film it did not grab a hold on my mind and my heart like 21 grams does. Inarritu takes the idea of film making he used in Amores Perros and puts it to a story that should touch anyone that walks this earth. The movie is a social commentary on the fear of death, the coping with death, and being able to cope with the fact that this world is a place of chance and freak things, but that everyone musst go through this and be able to handle it. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are the standouts of the movie. Naomi Watts is stellar at times, but at other times it seemed that she was overacting. The first hour of 21 grams is some of the best film making that I have seen in some time, but the ladder 45 minutes seem to be a bit stretched out at times. Overall though the movie is one of the years ten best, which usually results in a pretty stellar film. Thumbs up to Inarritu for being able to put such powerful emotions to the screen.

I agree with the person who said she couldn't understand how someone would give this a low rating. If movies are just for entertainment, this is clearly not for you. But if you want to deal with the human condition, it is. I had to see it twice to appreciate it completely, and of course it takes some endurance to do so. It had me bawling for days. I think Arriaga intended some very deep symbolism here. Sean Penn's character appears to be a "Christ figure" in the movie. Towards the end, he grabs a gun and shoots himself while Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro are fighting on the other side of the room. If he had done what we would normally expect and shot Benicio del Toro, the signs of reconciliation that we can detect near the end of the movie would not have been possible. He and Christina (Naomi Watts) would have spent the rest of the film running from the law or otherwise trying to hide the fact that they'd killed him, and, I suppose, justifying the act to themselves because "he deserved it." But as it is, there is room for reconciliation at the end because of what Sean Penn does. I'll admit that my idea that there's reconciliation might seem doubtful to some of you. The reason I think there's a bit of reconciliation is that in one of the very last shots of the film, while the narrative voice-over is on, you see Christina turn to Benicio del Toro while he speaks to her. I think that in a film like this, written by someone like Guillermo Arriaga, there is reason to read even small details like that in such an optimistic way. And actually, because the film is giving us what we could call a "God's-eye view" of these people's lives, the exact degree of Christina's reconciliation with Benicio del Toro's character is not that important. What is important is that Arriaga has shown us there is potential for reconciliation. And as you might guess, I interpret Christina's pregnancy at the end as being a sort of resurrection. She lost her family, and Sean Penn's love has given her another one. At the very end, you see her in her daughters' bedroom, cradling her pregnant abdomen and holding one of her daughter's stuffed animals. Earlier in the film, she had said she could not bear to step into their room. I also wonder if Arriaga intended Penn's wife to be a sort of representation of Law, given that she's always trying to "manage" his life and get him to do sensible things like not smoking. Much of what she demands seems sensible, but in the context of his life, it doesn't seem to work. And you might notice that later, when he attempts to get Christina to stop using drugs, he is more understanding of her position than his wife had been of his. What finally gets her to stop using drugs (I assume) is the new life he has given her, rather than someone browbeating her.

This is a hard movie to watch both for its content and for in the way it’s made. First, it’s loooong. Second, the subject matter on its own is tough to watch all the way through, but it’s made even harder to watch by the way the movie constantly jumps around between relationships and time. The jumping around is especially egregious in the first half of the movie, and it’s excessive, annoying, confusing, and unnecessary. It’s too bad because the acting and characters are absolutely first rate and the story is good, but they are undermined by the “artsy” directors and editors who chopped this otherwise excellent movie into lots of small pieces and threw them into a blender so the movie is ultimately hard to follow or enjoy. And on top of that the ending is underwhelming. So while there’s a lot good going on here, it’s not nearly as good as it could’ve been. Good luck if you choose to watch this.

I don't even know how to begin. Of course, you must KNOW that any film with Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts, and Sean Penn is going to be good. But the subject matter in this film makes it absolutely necessary to have actors of this caliber play the part of these flawed yet very human characters. It also requires a director with more than just a passing understanding of human relationships. This movie touched my heart in a way that I don't even fully understand. The story itself takes place in chunks of timelines, much like how you would remember a dream or an event in the distant past. As I watched these narrative parts become whole, I understood that this movie shows life as it is, not as people imagine it to be. Which seems like it would be easy, but I imagine it's harder to depict reality than it is to elicit fantasy. When you gently but completely pull the curtain back on fantasy, you can more fully see the inner lives of the characters. And with the right story and the right actors, those inner lives are compelling enough to want to carefully keep track of each piece of the story as we come to see it, and to "bond" in a way with each character. In the U.S., blockbuster films have conditioned the populace to think in terms of "good guys,' "bad guys," "beginning" and "end." This makes it so that many Americans have trouble navigating stories without those crutches to help them along. If you watch this film with a more nuanced, fully human appreciation of what it means to be a mortal being, you will be speechless at the end as well. And your heart will understand the story more than your head.

This movie changed my life back in 2005 and I’ve come back to it every few years since. It is my favorite movie ever. The plot is original and the acting combined with the story, cinematography and sound all lead to a truly heart shattering and cathartic experience. Due to this movie, any time I hear a leaf blower of a certain type, I am instantly transported back to where I was the very first time I saw this movie nearly 20 years ago. It’s had a powerful impact on my life. Just so good.

It took me about 30 minutes to figure out what was going on in this movie and that it was random shots out of chronological order which was enormously annoying. Then, are we supposed to believe that Sean Penn's character was able to hire a private detective who easily found out who Penn's character's heart donor was, when we all know that medical information is kept top-secret and protected? I didn't get the ending at all. Why would Del Toro's character tell authorities that he shot Penn's character? That was never resolved and it didn't make any sense, either. And who was the father of Christina's baby? She told Penn's character that she hadn't talked to anyone for months, so it couldn't have been her dead husband's baby or she would have already known she was pregnant. Yet she and Penn's character had just started having a sexual relationship, so was it really possible for the medical personnel to know that she was pregnant only a day or two after she and Penn's character had sex for the first time? 21 Grams is just a horrible, horrible story that made no sense and was not enjoyable or entertaining in any way, shape or form.

ACHTUNG: Dieser angebotene Artikel ist ausschließlich in Englischer Sprache! Mich stört das nicht, aber nachdem fast alle Rezensionen auf Deutsch sind und auch in der Artikelbeschreibung auf eine Deutsche Fassung Bezug genommen wird("Auffallend gut sind die Stimmen auch in der deutschen Fassung der Umgebung angepasst..."), dachte ich, es wäre auch eine deutsche Tonspur enthalten. Es wird zwar am Ende von "Ton:" darauf hingewiesen: "Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.", aber was weiß man schon... Ein Foto der Rückseite ist leider nicht verfügbar. Zum Film selbst möchte ich mich allen vorangegangen positiven Kritiken anschließen, daher auch 5 Sterne.

Bound together by one incident, three totally different people; Paul (Sean Penn), Cristina (Naomi Watts) and Jack (Benico Del Toro). Paul is a man who is slowly dying from heart failure; Cristina is a wife and mother of two; Jack is a religious ex-convict with a long criminal record. Incidentally, they are bound together by a car accident.The film is split into the past and present, telling the story from the start, but interspersing it with sequences which are to come. Directed by Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu, 21 Grams deals with the raw emotion of a person. It is a very human film, portraying passion and emotion at its most real with some superb acting and extreme camera close ups. As a film, it is immensely hard hitting and as the film approaches its final climax, everything, all the sequences that are shown earlier are tied together and it all makes sense. Unlike many films, 21 Grams shows killing to be heavy, a weight on the conscience. You will find that at the end of the film you will have a strange feeling of enlightenment. 21 Grams is a film that you should only really watch on your own to appreciate the power and emotion of it. The simple music and the way it is filmed with hand held cameras makes it so melancholic and powerful against dusty Mexican-type countrysides, suburban towns, congested motorways, intense clubs, dank, grim prisons, cheap motels and hospitals drenched in the irony of life. One of the fascinating parts of the film is the title; 21 Grams. It is said, that when you die, you lose 21 grams of body weight which is believed to be the weight of ones soul. 21 Grams is easily one of, if not the best film of 2004. If you appreciate meangingful and powerful films, I highly recommend it. The story is superbly crafted and brought together with gripping, solemn imagery. This is one of the films you have to see before you die.

人は死ぬと21g軽くなるらしい。 ほんとうなのか？

A great, great story.. to me, as a Christian, it speaks volumes of my own struggle, but what an amazing abstraction that brings in so many different dimensions, ways of reading and associating with the heroes - a true story of redemption, of finding a proper time and place to die.. to be born!

LE BLU-RAY On ne va pas se mentir, 21 grammes est un film à grain et sévèrement bruité. Mais il s'agit bien d'un choix artistique. Un matériau bien en accord avec les âmes parasitées qui habitent ce très grand film. Mais là où mon ancien DVD, visionné sur un grand écran, se noyait totalement, contours et arrière-plans s'effaçant misérablement dans de sauvage lâchés de pixels, le Blu-ray fait royalement le job (avec une touche de digital clean view) Ça graine, ça bruite mais l'image est nette et de très belle tenue. Dans le genre "Blu-ray à grain très cinoche et peloche travaillée au burin" on tient là une autre idée du "top démo". Bon, vous trouverez forcément de méchants détracteurs de ce type d'expérience HD déceptive mais moi ça me plait bien. Côté son, l'écart avec le DVD est lui clairement tranché. Achat indispensable pour les puristes! LE FILM je profite de sa sortie en Blu-ray pour glisser deux trois mots sur ce maillot jaune du drame qui arrache, ce top du tourment viscéral, ce monument de l'âme endeuillée, cet Annapurna de l'agonie existentielle, j'ai nommé l'écrasant 21 Grammes du génial Birdman-Revenant réalisateur Alejandro G. Inarritu !!!! Que dire de ce magique trio d'acteur qui m'a de nouveau tordu les tripes tout au long de ces trois parcours de vie se percutant tragiquement lors d'un effroyable accident. Naomi Watts. Admirable et bouleversante en femme brisée par le deuil basculant des abîmes de la douleur aux torrents de la colère. Benicio Del Toro. Intense en personnage dévasté par la culpabilité. Son charisme incandescent incendie tout sur son passage. Sean Penn. Égal à lui-même. Véritable Stradivarius quand il s'agit de jouer la fragilité et l'imminence des dernières heures. Je ne vais pas m'étendre car ce film est d'abord "à vivre" et, vous l'aurez compris, les thèmes brassés dans 21 grammes n'invitent pas franchement au délayage ni à la légèreté et encore moins à l'expression d'une quelconque forme de joie. La vie, l'amour et la mort. Le deuil, la culpabilité et le sacrifice. Un scénario à la pointe du gouffre signé Guillermo Arriagas. Le collaborateur d'Inarittu depuis Amours Chiennes jusqu'à Babel nous confronte ici au dur de l'existence. Le récit avance sur le seul fil des émotions en bousculant totalement sa narration. 21 Grammes est un puzzle fascinant (le premier quart-d'heure peut dérouter) mais au final d'une cohérence et d'une lisibilité stupéfiante. Tout dans cette saisissante expérience cinématographique avance en osmose. La photographie brulée et particulièrement rugueuse de Rodrigo Prieto (Babel, Brokeback Mountain, Le Loup de Wall Street) nous livre, avec force mais sans jamais chercher le beau, toute cette vibration des âmes au supplice. Le montage à la temporalité explosée de Stephen Mirrione (The Revenant, Birdman, Contagion) embrasse passé présent et futur dans un même tango furieux. C'est la réalité et la vérité du sentiment. Comme dans notre vie, nous sommes condamnés ici à nous prendre les évènements en pleine gueule. C'est ainsi. Les drames surgissent et ni l'amour, ni la foi ne peuvent nous protéger. Tout peut s'envoler d'un instant à l'autre. 21 grammes ou l'insoutenable légèreté de l'âme. Continuer sur : Les chroniques ciné de Francisco