A violent car accident unexpectedly throws together the lives of a college professor an ex-con & a young mother with a reckless past. The corssing of their paths takes them through the heights of love the depths of revenge & the promise of redemption. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/24/2004 Starring: Sean Penn Naomi Watts Run time: 125 minutes Rating: R

Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro, two of the most gripping actors around, play wildly different men linked through a grieving woman (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, The Ring) in 21 Grams. Del Toro (Traffic, The Usual Suspects) delves deep into the role of an ex-con turned born-again Christian, a deeply conflicted man struggling to set right a terrible accident, even at the expense of his family. Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking) captures a cynical, philandering professor in dire need of a heart transplant, which he gets from the death of Watts' husband. 21 Grams slips back in forth in time, creating an intricate emotional web out of the past and the present that slowly draws these three together; the result is remarkably fluid and compelling. The movie overreaches for metaphors towards the end, but that doesn't erase the power of the deeply felt performances. --Bret Fetzer

The story line reveal itself by a series of multiple flashes that all add up to make a very compelling cinematic experience. Touching, moving human
drama.

I'm hard put whether to give this alternately depressing and enlightening film a 3 or 4 star rating, but closer to a 4 since the three leads are superb and this film has more substance than a lot of the films currently out there. In a nutshell, it tells of 3 people interlinked to a tragedy involving a car crash (in narrative, very similiar to the director's first, "Amores Perros") and how they eventually finally confront each other in an dynamic finale. Sean Penn must have had a great year, acting-wise, since this film and "Mystic River" netted him an Academy Award, a Golden Globes, and Best Actor by the National Board of Review (a poll by all the leading film critics in the country). Watts and del Toro are also superb in their pivotal roles and the title itself refers to the weight applied to one's life when it begins!!

This movie get's 4.5/5 from me, but I gave it 5 to benefit its overall rating.

21 Grams is an extraordinary film, and I'm surprised I had not heard of it before I saw it, as it totes some of the best performances I've seen of Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, and especially Sean Penn.

This is one of the only movies that has truly emotionally affected me... I finished this movie emotionally worn out. Its story and art direction are flawless, and the editing makes everything work: it's done in a Pulp Fiction style, where the pieces of the story are shown out of order and it doesn't fit together perfectly until the very end.

The .5 off is because there are still a couple scenes that are not perfect.

In conclusion this is an excellent film that I would recommend to anyone who doesn't just like blockbuster action movies. I'm eager to see the director's other work.

In the beginning, this film is interesting and otherwise very good, but Sean Penn's character makes the movie unwatchable. He is portrayed as a previous transplant recipient who must undergo the procedure again, yet he is constantly smoking. What surgeon, under similar conditions, would operate on him?

I hated this movie. It was so slow and annoying, filled with over-the-top acting and a story that jumps all over the place. I understand that the directing was different because the movie goes back and forth through time to explain the story, but this wasn't interesting to me. It just served to confuse and make the movie move along at a snail's pace. The more Sean Penn films I see, the more I am starting to think that he ain't so great. Naomi Watts was so annoying in this movie and I'm sorry, but I felt no sympathy for her at all. Benicio Del Toro was great, but he is great in everything so it was no surprise that he did a great job in his role. Ultimately, this is a slow movie that is way overrated. I didn't enjoy this film and was very happy when it was over. I give it 2 stars because it tried to do something different.