21 Grams (2003)

Stars	User	Rating
5	Paxton	56 _30th
I promise this isn't a cry for help, but I am exactly twenty-one grams away from my ideal beach body. Dilemma...
4	doctor7	57 _35th
Powerful performances from all involved, especially Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn, but by the end the plot becomes so ludacriously depressing it's almost laughable about how many bad things can possibly happen to any one person. I was surprised a meteor didn't fall out of the sky and hit one of the characters right in the face. Such forced depression really killed the experience for me.
4	panzerwolf	85 _92nd
Somehow this movie felt more real than many other drama movies I have seen before. A melancholy look at the lives of a few random people who become connected to each other in strange ways. Brilliant acting and cinematography.
2	Anomaly	65 _38th
The first hour is interesting and engaging, the second hour falls apart and becomes another annoying ensemble film. The non-linear editing isn't pulled off well enough; it spoils all the plots and ruins the tension. The ending is contrived, and the editing is full of useless, alienating jump cuts. Iñárritu needs to drop the gimmicks and focus on one plot and develop it to satisfaction.
2	Manhatta	47 _22nd
I'll bend my will a lot for Inarritu, but this was just cheesy. Anytime Benicio Del Toro wasn't on screen I lost interest entirely. The experimental structure was especially pointless this time around.
2	purgatos	58 _28th
Basically a mess that tries for too much and can't quite manage it.
2	05caniffa	84 _79th
I'm a big fan of multiple story lines, and non-linear story telling, but in this case I felt it wasn't utilized well and as a result there was little to no tension in the film. I felt like the plot could have held up fine in a linear fashion, but it was at least partially spoiled by the choice in editing the story that way.
2	johnshaft	80 _70th
Had it been told straight-forward, this would be simply brilliant, but the needlessly convoluted nature of the film detracts from the experience a bit. The acting is uniformly excellent.
2	Judge Holden	2 _15th
Inarritu's entire career is based on sticking to this contrived narrative structure, which is made more insufferable by Arriaga's poor script.
1	CCLZA	70 _51st
Gonzalez Iñarritu aims at too much in the emotional field and tries to make the visual style a part of it, with mediocre results. The screenplay and way of telling the story is brilliant, but drives the attention away of the plot.
1	AgentSnipe	89 _96th
Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio Del Toro are all fantastic in this jarring and tragic film. The movie itself is unique in that it is all told non-sequentially with the audiences given little pieces of scenes in a seemingly random order. The film is excellent and is very powerful.
1	Moribunny	20 _9th
Poorly written, contrived and manipulative. It was apparently sensed by the director that the story doesn't hold water, and so he tried to make up for it via a gimmick: Very fragmentary editing, bits and pieces, often non-linear chronologically. All this does is to take a mediocre movie and make it messier and less coherent. I wish someone would explain to crap directors that editing gimmicks do not deodorize their stinkers.
1	kamran	43 _18th
Gimmicky, self-involved and completely unrewarding. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro save the thing, while Naomi Watts turns up the volume in order to scream and feign through every line of dialogue or action she is given.
1	jargonscott	16 _2nd
Pretentiously presented, with actors more focused on attaining Oscar nominations than genuinely deep, authentic portrayals!
1	timmo	50 _10th
Why is this film out of order?
1	joule	90 _74th
A mind-bending, scrambled egg of a drama. It's a powerful, provocative film with three impressive performances.
1	MonsterGear	40 _8th
meh.
1	Barthalen	78 _74th
The highly non-linear approach in the beginning helped draw me in a bit more than regular storytelling would have. Even though it's 'just a drama', it hit all the right notes thanks to a great cast and the constant shift in perspective.
1	NathanDarko	98 _98th
A melancholic trip that confronts you with some heavy "what would I do" questions that left me with a twisted mind. Naomi Watts and Sean Penn at it's best and In deed one of the best Drama's in the last years.
1	Neonman	39 _3rd
It's unfortunately more Amores Perros than Birdman, its indulgence in misery and moralising is close, but no cigar to the former film's, but this is still arthouse trash. Firstly, the fragmented narrative structure is audacious, but because of its inconsistency it does nothing for the film except obscure the story for no reason. The story itself gets more contrived towards the end, with a few plot points leaving me aghast by their stupidity.
1	e_e	25 _27th
Gimmicky, manipulative and unrewarding.
1	UniqueName	70 _34th
Highly overrated and pretty dull, Del Toro is fantastic, but really pretty basic and plodding to boot.
1	elmakebabi	69 _59th
For God's Sake, no more parallel stories, please.
1	dmguidry	69 _42nd
Did not see what was so great about this movie. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are great, but the plot is weaker than the heart.
1	dunbar	75 _61st
It's got something to begin with, seemingly watchable. Then cracks start to appear, a sense that the film's trying a little too hard. It actually ends with a sense of dissatisfaction, too disjointed for its own good.
1	JSchlansky	58 _38th
An interesting premise, some great scenes, and a cast I really like (aside from Sean Penn who I struggle to not be grossed out by) but the pieces never clicked together for me. The non-chronological presentation seemed more like a gimmick rather than the core storytelling component it was in the other entries in the Life trilogy. The visual style didn't quite jive with me either, but I could see rating this higher if I was able to get on board with Penn's central character.
1	Ceekay19	70 _55th
Paul Rivers: "How many lives do we live? How many times do we die? They say we all lose 21 grams... at the exact moment of our death. Everyone. And how much fits into 21 grams? How much is lost? When do we lose 21 grams? How much goes with them? How much is gained? How much is gained? Twenty-one grams. The weight of a stack of five nickels. The weight of a hummingbird. A chocolate bar. How much did 21 grams weigh?"

Average Percentile 59.19% from 7382 Ratings