21 Grams review

After creating a worldwide sensation with his debut feature Amores Perros, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu returns with a new movie that marks him out as a stylist of modern cinema. Nevertheless, style still requires substance as an accompaniment and 21 Grams is as likely to put off as many viewers as it will attract them due to the contrived manner in which the director allows his story to unfold. At times this is a film which is more about how the story is told rather than the story itself.

The film ties together three characters united by a fatal car accident. Naomi Watts plays a devoted wife and mother waiting for her family to return home. Sean Penn is a man dying of heart failure and in desperate need of a replacement organ. Benicio Del Toro is a reformed convict, a former thug who now places God above everything else.

Inarritu plays with the audience's sense of screen time by showing us most of his film out of chronological order. We know early on that all three characters are inextricably connected and that they will end up together in a violent denouement. What we don't know is quite how they will get there and while many viewers will enjoy the satisfaction of piecing together the clues, others may find the form used simply too irritating.

In a character-driven movie, performances are what matter and all three leads are more than up to the occasion. Del Toro excels as the brooding reformee, struggling with demons that have seen him frequently jailed. Penn offers an existential slant to his need for a new heart, alternating between nonchalance and occasional emotional brutality, while Watts continues to establish herself as one of Hollywood's most capable leading ladies in what is the most emotionally demanding role of the three.

Those who remember such slight heart-swap films as David Duchovny's Return to Me and Bob Hoskins' Heart Condition may chortle at this eminently serious effort which is resolutely determined to pile surprise after surprise. They may also question why the director has made such editing choices - after all if a story is strong enough, what's wrong with telling it in a straightforward linear manner? If you're wondering what the title refers to, you'll have to wait for a rather awkward ending in which all is revealed.