Preview
21 GRAMS
Starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benecio Del Toro.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Opens Friday, December 26
Uptown Screen
The title of the new film by the creative minds behind Amores Perros refers to the amount of weight allegedly lost by the human body at the moment of death. As Sean Penn’s character notes, this factoid suggests that the soul is about the weight of a chocolate bar. If only that were the case for these unlucky sods. 21 Grams portrays how their backs are nearly broken by the loads of pain, grief and guilt they carry inside.
A series of fraught flashbacks and flash-forwards gradually reveals the details of a tragedy that draws three people together in Memphis. Paul (Penn) is an academic with an ailing heart and a failing marriage. Christina (Naomi Watts) is a recovering drug addict and the happy mother of two girls. And Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is a born-again ex-con who thanks God for blessing him with both a healthy family and a fancy pickup truck. Rushing home one night, Jack and his truck are involved in an accident that sends the lives of all three characters into a terrifying tailspin.
In terms of emotional intensity and the fracturing of narrative structure, director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga up the ante from their extraordinary Mexican hit of 2000. In fact, 21 Grams is so compelling and audacious that when the film finally settles onto a more linear trajectory, it’s a letdown. Once the overall arc of the film is revealed, the last scenes fail to have the same charge as the furious, maddening confusion of the first hour. Nonetheless, it is a bold and intelligent follow-up to Amores Perros.
Moreover, it’s welcome proof that Iñárritu and Arriaga’s visceral approach to storytelling hasn’t been tamed by the move north. Though Arriaga began writing the script in Spanish in 1999, the Hollywood interest generated by Amores Perros led to a switch in language and locale. During an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Iñárritu explains that decision was based on the cast.
"There’s no better reason than to get an international cast of that calibre," he says. "There were some adjustments to the script but very few. It’s a very universal story. That same story can happen in France or Greece or Mexico. The things that happen there can happen to all of us."
Though directors like Iñárritu and actors like Penn and Watts (both of whom give fearless performances) tend to grab the glory when it comes to a movie’s success, it’s clear that the less heralded role of the writer has been vital in the development of 21 Grams. Arriaga, the author of three novels as well as the screenplays for forthcoming projects by Tommy Lee Jones and Monster’s Ball director Marc Forster, recalls an incident many years ago when he was rushing home to his birthday party from the university where he worked.
"I was on the highway when I saw a patrol car with its lights on," he says. "There was an accident. I stopped the car and walked over to see what was going on, to make sure everything was all right. There was a man – 30, maybe 31 – dead. Someone had run over him. It had happened three or four minutes before.
"The policeman pulled out his wallet to see his ID and beside the ID was a picture of this man with a woman and a little girl sitting on his lap. Then I realized this guy was a father, a husband, and his family was waiting for him. Maybe that woman and the daughter were playing and smiling and laughing while this guy was dead. It shocked me. So as I drove to this party, I thought about what would happen if I told my wife I ran over a family and killed them. What would she say about it?"
This is the same situation faced by Jack, who feels betrayed by God for wreaking such destruction. He incurs the vengeance of Christina, who is devastated by the loss of her spouse and kids in the accident, and Paul, whose life is saved when he receives a heart transplant from Christina’s husband but can’t cope with the ramifications.
Arriaga remembers another moment that got him thinking about the seemingly insurmountable grief caused by the loss of a child. Several years later, some time after Arriaga’s two-year-old nephew had drowned in a pool, Arriaga’s son finally saw the boy’s mother smile again. "He asked me, ‘If I died, would you ever smile again?’ So you can imagine what it’s like hearing your son make this question. It broke my heart," Arriga says.
Iñárritu praises the directness in his partner’s writing. "He doesn’t fear to show the human condition in a naked way," says the director. "And he talks about very basic, primitive things that I can relate to. He does this in a way that is not pretentious or intellectual but entertaining. At the same time, there is a profound exploration of things that are very important for all of us. That’s tough because when people talk about those kinds of things, they get very cerebral, very deep, very important, and that’s boring."
Though the climax of 21 Grams doesn’t deliver the knockout punch it should, the movie is far from boring. Particularly affecting is the manner in which it portrays how people often use external aspects of their lives – like Jack with God, Christina with her family and Paul with his health – in order to avoid confronting the true torments that reside deep in their souls.
"That’s the first thought I had when I was writing this," says Arriaga. "These three people, they come from hell – (Jack) from the hell of jail and abuse, Christina from drug-addiction hell and Paul from the hell of bad health. Suddenly, (Jack) has a chance to go to what he thinks is heaven, through God. Christina finds heaven through her family and Paul finds heaven when he receives another heart. Then circumstances put them again in the worst hell. They are trying to hold on to external things but now they are on their own and they are trying to find real hope inside themselves."
However gruelling it may be, Iñárritu and Arriaga insist 21 Grams is a film of hope.
"I think it’s easy to say that when it’s a feel-good movie," says Arriaga. "What about a film of hope when characters are submerged in this very deep abyss?" |
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