21 Grams

Being a summer '07 purchase, this one's been backlogged for 2 years. I watched 21 Grams in two sittings over the past two nights. It was a very good movie. If you're like me, you've already seen Guillermo Arriaga's most famous film, Babel. 21 Grams is a lot like Babel (and also, I've heard, Amores Perros - another Arriaga flick) in that it focuses on three separate stories and how they all intertwine and, well, collide. But while Babel was very linear and patterned, 21 Grams is a mess. I mean this in a good way. It took about five or ten minutes, in 21 Grams, to separate the three protagonists and their story threads. The three stories are told not only jumbled together but also non-chronologically. It's as if someone walked into the editing room with a bunch of scenes and said, "fuck it, put 'em in any order whatsoever." Only it's not like that at all, because the ordering of the snippets is so masterfully done, almost like a puzzle coming together slowly before your eyes. It warrants a rewatch, certainly, but given my current project, a second viewing will have to wait for another time. I put this DVD in the tray with no expectations whatsoever, even about the plot. From the title, I gathered that it was probably about an amount of cocaine or some other drug. But it's not. In fact, drugs have very little, if anything, to do with the main plot whatsoever. I was rewarded with an interestingly told story and amazing acting. I did think the second half of the movie lagged a tad - most of the mystery and puzzle is figured out in the first half, which is odd for any film - but then again, I watched this movie one half at a time on two separate nights. Maybe I was just more into it the first night. It began like a 9 or a 10 and finished with the zeal of a 7, so in the end I guess I'd give it an 8 - not so shabby at all. I'm still uncertain if I like this or Babel better, but both are great films, and I someday hope to see Amores Perros to complete this little "trilogy" of sorts, albeit in reverse order.