| | | "An Extraordinary Story of Hope, Love and Revenge from the Director of the Academy Award-Nominated Amores Perros."
Features: DVD, Special Edition
The emotionally and physically charged lives of three people - a college professor (Sean Penn), an ex-con (Benicio Del Toro) and a young mother with a reckless past (Naomi Watts) - collide unexpectedly in this gripping suspense thriller.Fate brought them together. Now vengeance will take them to the heights of love, the depths of revenge and the promise of redemption. Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Naomi Watts give the finest performances of their careers in the film that is "tantalizingly alive!" (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly).
"Few glimmers of hope pierce the hypnotic gloom of this picture..." Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle
"Like Mystic River...21 Grams uses raw emotional power to explore the aftermath of violence..." Nathan Rabin, The Onion A.V. Club
"...an arresting and accomplished film..." Peter Bradshaw, The Observer
Editor's Note
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (AMORES PERROS) directs this staggeringly intense drama concerning three families whose lives fatefully intertwine through a series of tragic events. With jumbled chronology that jumps from one shocking event to the next in an increasingly chaotic maelstrom, 21 GRAMS is relentlessly gritty in its content and its aesthetics. The title refers to the amount of weight that a human body loses at the moment of death, but the story begs the question: How much is gained? Paul (Sean Penn) has less than a month to live, stalled on the waiting list for a heart transplant, and his wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is determined to get pregnant with his child before it's too late. Meanwhile, Cristina (Naomi Watts) is a happy mother with a loving husband and two daughters but she loses her family in an instant to an unpredictable accident. Finally, Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-con and born-again Christian struggling to support his wife and two children while battling his own guilty conscience. When these three parties come together, explosively, they make each other behave in impulsive, violent, and destructive ways. 21 GRAMS takes viewers on a jolting journey through sickness, suffering, morality, revenge, and last but not least, the sometimes welcome peace of death.
| Features | Audio: English DTS 5.1 Surround | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Featurette: In Fragments | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 10/3/2006 |
| Running Time: 125 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 30136 | | UPC: 00025193013620 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (2004) | | | Independent Spirit, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, et. al., Special Distinction Award | |
Nominee (2004) | | | Oscar, Naomi Watts , Best Actress in a Leading Role | |
Winner (2003) | | | Venice Film Festival, Sean Penn, Volpi Cup - Best Actor | | | Venice Film Festival, Naomi Watts, Wella Prize | | | Venice Film Festival, Benicio Del Toro, et. al., Audience Award - Best Actor | | | Venice Film Festival, Naomi Watts , Audience Award - Best Actress |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...Inarritu cements his reputation as a boldly talented filmmaker with his first English-language project, 21 GRAMS..." 09/15/2003 p.21-32Entertainment Weekly
"...It's a startlingly crafted movie, with several extraordinary performances..." 11/21/2003 p.58-60 Film Comment
"...The film is full of engagingly high-strung performances..." 11/01/2003 p.74 Los Angeles Times
"...There are few movie pleasures as satisfying as an actor soaring to meet the challenge of his or her gift. It's a pleasure that's delivered threefold in 21 GRAMS..." 11/21/2003 p.C6 Rolling Stone
"...That Inarritu shapes something redemptive out of blasted lives is proof that he is a filmmaker of rare and startling grace..." 12/11/2003 p.214 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"...[A] complex, time-fractured narrative....The most shattering performance comes from Naomi Watts..." 12/01/2003 p.113 USA Today
"This is cinematic art in its highest form." 11/21/2003 p.1E Chicago Sun-Times
"[T]he film is a virtuoso accomplishment of construction and editing." 11/26/2003 p.63 Sight and Sound
"Inarritu remains primarily a poet of the visible world..." 03/01/2004 p.70-1 Total Film
"Watts and Del Toro - both Oscar-nominated for their roles - positively roar with restraint, while the lesser known Melissa Leo matches Benicio every step of the way..." 04/01/2004 p.43 ReelViews 9 of 10
21 Grams is a stunning kaleidoscope of a motion picture - a mosaic of images that gradually resolves itself into a powerful tale of tragedy and redemption. Not only is this one of the year's most compelling motion pictures, but, in terms of structure, it's also one of the most intriguing and unique. Not since Memento has a movie so successfully employed a non-linear chronology. The jigsaw puzzle approach used by director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu keeps us far more intrigued than a conventional vision of identical material would. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
21 Grams knows all about its story but only lets us discover it a little at a time. Well, every movie does that, but usually they tell their stories in chronological order, so we have the illusion that we're watching as the events happen to the characters. In this film everything has already happened, and it's as if God, or the director, is shuffling the deck after the game is over. Here is the question we have to answer: Is this approach better than telling the same story from beginning to end? - Roger Ebert
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