Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Movie Review - 21 Grams (2003)
Thoughts going in: Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is a genius. Amores Perros was one of my favorite movies of 2001, and his Powder Keg segment in the BMW films series was also impressive. I'm expecting this to be one of my favorites of 2003 as well.
Thoughts going out: Mildly disappointed. While I'm a big fan of movies that treat time as something less than linear (i.e.,Memento, Exotica), Iñárritu's decision to slice and dice at least three different time frames is nothing short of maddening here. A powerful story of guilt, redemption and revenge wonderfully acted by Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts, 21 Grams is hampered by its initial 30 minutes of incomprehensibility. As a result, this film almost demands a second viewing, although my philosophy of movie watching is that there are thousands of films I haven't seen, so why watch one I already have? And here's hoping Iñárritu, in his next feature, decides to make something other than an automobile accident the fulcrum of his plot. I'm beginning to think his formative film experience was watching the Mexican equivalent of Highways of Agony in his high school's driver's ed course.
Rating (1-100): 68.
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Thoughts going out: Mildly disappointed. While I'm a big fan of movies that treat time as something less than linear (i.e.,Memento, Exotica), Iñárritu's decision to slice and dice at least three different time frames is nothing short of maddening here. A powerful story of guilt, redemption and revenge wonderfully acted by Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts, 21 Grams is hampered by its initial 30 minutes of incomprehensibility. As a result, this film almost demands a second viewing, although my philosophy of movie watching is that there are thousands of films I haven't seen, so why watch one I already have? And here's hoping Iñárritu, in his next feature, decides to make something other than an automobile accident the fulcrum of his plot. I'm beginning to think his formative film experience was watching the Mexican equivalent of Highways of Agony in his high school's driver's ed course.
Rating (1-100): 68.
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