21 Grams [DVD] [2004]

This is a very good movie, but was made unnecessarily complicated and confusing by the way the plot alternates between characters and different moments in time. I am not new to facing this technique, which has been used extensively by one of my favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, and some of the writers I enjoy most, Stephen King and Mario Vargas Llosa. However, in the Tarantino movies and the King books I found enough information to make it relatively easy to follow the events and time periods to which they refer to. I found extremely hard to do this in "21 Grams", as happened when I read the great novel "Conversation in the Cathedral" by Vargas Llosa. After the first thirty minutes in the movie, it all starts to make sense and I was able to enjoy the movie. However, this production could have received five stars instead of four if the beginning was not so tangled.
Paul (Sean Penn) is dying and needs a heart transplant urgently, while his wife Mary is trying to get pregnant before it is too late. Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-alcoholic and ex-convict, who has recently been fired from his job in a Country Club because of his appearance. When Jack accidentally runs over a man and his two kids, Paul gets his transplant, and the destiny of the two men and the widow become inexorably intertwined. From this point on, we witness the emotions and actions of the survivor, the victim and the man who cannot help feeling guilty.
It is interesting that Del Toro received an academy nomination for this movie and Sean Penn did not. In my opinion, the latter shines brighter and his talent lead to justly winning an Oscar for "Mystic River". "21 Grams" is a movie that deserves to be seen, and I hope that if you find yourself frustrated at the beginning because it is hard to follow, you will hang in there until everything makes sense. I know you will not be disappointed.