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Wednesday, 07 July 2004 |
  Since the release of the popular independent film Memento in 2001, manipulating time lines in films has been particularly popular. While many have just been imitators, duplicating its backward time line, others have used the technique more constructively and creatively. Still, in even the most skilled hands, tampering with the timeline in a film can and often does run the risk of becoming a shallow scheme.
21 Grams uses an unconventional time line, but in this case the story jumps back and forth in time, without explanation, and between the 3 main characters as their lives converge. In lesser hands, this could be more a gimmick than a narrative technique, but in the hands of director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros) and writer Guillermo Arriaga, the result is powerfully effective. Not only does it put the viewer on edge, but also contributes to the film's theme of how uncertain the consequences of many decisions actually are.
Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) is a University professor who at alternating times is dying of heart disease, living a seemingly healthy life and apparently bleeding to death. Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) is at one moment a strung out drug addict, at another moment a lonely woman consumed with grief and at yet other times a happy, healthy wife with two young daughters. Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro) moves from an evangelizing, born again Christian, to a prison inmate to a man who has abandoned his wife and children. All these stories are told simultaneously and disjointedly in 21 Grams.
The fractured narrative of 21 Grams has seemed like a gimmick to some viewers, but it in fact serves an important purpose in the meaning of the story. A traditional, linear narrative will often imply events and their consequences are much simpler than they probably are. By breaking up the cause and effect of the many events which will bring these three lives together, the viewer is not only forced to run them repeatedly through their mind, but to turn them around and look at them from all angles.
At one moment Jack is preaching his beliefs and a minute later he is cursing them. The viewer is given ample time to consider the possible cause of this change before actually seeing it. Paul sits in a dirty motel room with Cristina, then is literally days away from death from heart disease, and then is hosting a dinner party with his wife Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who announces they will be having a child. It is not even clear until well into the film which order these events actually happened in.
The strongest aspect of 21 Grams, aside from the fine direction and writing, is the performances by the three leading actors. Penn, Watts and Del Toro put on a virtual acting showcase in a film that could have easily ventured into melodramatic camp. Their roles are handled with the level of tact and subtlety that is so often overlooked but is ultimately effective and powerful. It was high time for Sean Penn to win a Best Actor Oscar, but it probably should have been for his understated performance in 21 Grams than the more obvious one in [i]Mystic River[/i]. Watts did get a well deserved Oscar nod, but had no chance against the juggernaut of Charlize Theron's serial killer in Monster. Watts would have been my pick, but I don't pick them.
Starring: Sean Penn Naomi Watts Benicio Del Toro Charlotte Gainsbourg Melissa Leo Clea DuVall
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Studio: Universal/Focus Features
Rated: R
Running Time: 125 mins
Release: 2003
Best of the Year
Reviewer: John Rice |
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