21 Grams (2003) – 4/5
Very good movie. Great directing, incredible acting, great camera work, awesome story, well done complex editing. It has almost everything.
As soon as it was over, I started watching it again. I may not watch the whole thing, but I think it lends itself to a couple viewings – preferably soon after the first one when the elements are fresh in your memory.
SPOILERS
I’m not 100% sure what the message is if there is one. It seems there was a lot of trading of lives: he dies so he can live, she has an abortion which leads to him going w/ her to kill this guy that killed this guy so that he cd live, etc. I don’t know if there’s a statement there or just a powerful connection.
Also, there’s a strong image of guilt. Jack warns the ‘punk kid’ about crimes and how the ‘guilt will suck you to the bone.’ Then Jack winds up killing and the guilt really did just that. So much so that he a) wanted Paul to kill him and b) did the right thing the second time (he didn’t leave a dying person to die). Both times he takes the blame though the second time was a bit strange. I guess he was still trying to pay for it all.
Anyway, it’s a very powerful movie. They don’t spoon feed you a message so maybe it’s not really there or left up to us to write our own. I will say that, as is the case often in movies these days, none of these people are really ‘good.’ The only ones that are close, die.
So if nothing else, we can conclude, bad people get what’s due. I doubt that’s the point. 🙂