FILM REVIEW
"21 Grams"
(Universal)
Entertainment
Art
By ALEX MECHLIN
21 Grams takes the most basic human emotions such as guilt, loss and hope and strips them bare. With the help of three fine actors, the director Alejardro Gonzalez Inarritu and the writer Guillermo Arriaga craft a film that examines the questions of the human soul.
The film is structured emotionally rather than chronologically. The story does not go from point A to point B. Instead it jumbles up the scenes, so that time is fractured. At first, this is a little confusing as you get your bearings. But soon, the major event is explained, and the jumps back and forth in time become seamless. The major event is a car accident, which tragically kills three people, and also profoundly changes three other peoples’ lives. The rest of the movie examines the reverberations of this event, showing scenes that occur months apart. The final confrontation is a final release of the pent up guilt these three characters hold.
The central question of the film is whether life can go on after a great tragedy. Each of these characters is dead inside and think that nothing can wake them up. Their central journey is the rebirth of their souls, but to get there they must overcome their most self-destructive emotions.
Besides fate, Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is the central cause of the accident that kills Christiania’s (Naomi Watts) family. Paul’s heart is failing, and the accident generates another heart which he can use. Though these three lives are connected by the accident, they will also become intertwined purely through their choices and emotions. The first scene shows Penn and Watts in bed. Nothing has been established between these characters, but they look comfortable with each other. The camera lingers on their bodies’ inactivity. This scene is the calm before the rest of the movie’s storm.
And what a terrifying storm it is. The camera never strays from heartbreak, never turns away from grief. The only way to get the audience to experience this is to portray the characters without irony, without a judgmental comment on their lives.
The actors achieve this by being consistent with each other. There is never any doubt as to which movie anyone is in, and helps to bring their characters truth to the forefront. Penn is just as magnificent as he was in Mystic River, playing a very different character. Paul goes from a man resigned to thinking of only himself, to someone who can’t live without helping another human being. Penn strips away all the artifice to get straight to the emotion, and is allowed to show all facets of his character, even exhibiting some flashes of humor that hints at the happy person he had been before his heart was injured.
The director uses a raw camera to mirror the characters inner turmoil. The camera gets in close on their faces to reveal every scar. This technique allows pools of light to occasionally fill in the background. The first scene of Paul following Christina frames him in a square of white light. He is like an angel, seeking forgiveness and giving aid.
If music is used just right, it cannot only match the scene, but amplify the emotions being played out. There is no music in 21 grams until a shot of birds flying by. Then a piercing guitar note chimes in. After a few seconds the note changes and the movie continues on. The guitar has no melody to return to, but other instruments are added, while keeping the theme of long, sensual notes. It is telling that a drumbeat is never added. There is no rhythm to these characters lives, but they continue on anyway.
Religious themes are at the forefront and the subtext. Jack is a born again Christian, but is still troubled by a criminal past. The two church sessions perfectly sum up the changes in him. In the first, Jack is singing loudly (almost violently) along with the congregation while his wife looks uneasily on. After the central tragedy, Jack goes back to the congregation, but can’t bring himself to participate. Jack cannot abandon his belief that Jesus exists; instead he turns all his hatred previously directed against his family to Jesus.
One of the central visual motifs is the use of mirrors. Many times when a character enters a scene he or she is first shown by their reflection. The camera then pans over to their actual physical presence. These characters present many different levels of themselves to the world. But when they are most raw, they are helpless against the almost constant tides of grief and guilt. That is when they actually examine themselves in the mirror, and see their most basic human emotions.
The jumbled chronology gives additional effects to some scenes. If you know that someone will be killed at any second, every action they make plays with your nerves. Combined with the characters extreme guilt, the film starts to take on a certain existential dread. When Jack points at his head and says, "Hell is right here," the audience can sympathize.
Every day in the world a tragedy happens. And there are always survivors to that tragedy. I have never seen a movie that examines with such clarity survivors of a certain type. These people have deep reservoirs of guilt, which leads to desperate measures. They all attempt some form of suicide before the movie is over, but ultimately their journey is one of hope in the face of disaster. They finally reach some measure of peace, even if they didn’t always want to.
