21 Grams


 
 
21 Grams

21 Grams is a 2003 film written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu. It stars Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melissa Leo and Clea DuVall.

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Like Arriaga and Gonz?lez I??rritu's previous movie, Amores perros, 21 Grams is a movie which interweaves several plotlines, this time around the consequences of a tragic automobile accident. Penn plays a critically ill academic mathematician, Watts plays a grief stricken mother, and Del Toro plays an ex-convict whose newly discovered Christianity is sorely tested in the aftermath of the accident.

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The movie was shot in chronological order, but is edited in a non-linear arrangement where the lives of the characters are depicted before and after the accident. The three main characters each have 'past' 'present' and 'future' story threads, which are shown as non-linear fragments which punctuate elements of the overall story, all imminently coming toward each other and coalescing as the story progresses. I??rritu may have been influenced by the silent film Intolerance (film), though his approach is more complex. While sophisticated viewers can assemble the story and appreciate the director's motives, many others found the sequencing obstructive and confusing. Positive and negative opinion of the style appears to be highly polarized.

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The movie was nominated in the 2003 Academy Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Benicio Del Toro) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Naomi Watts).

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Tagline: How much does life weigh?

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The title of the movie comes from the work of Dr. Duncan MacDougall, who in the early 1900s sought to measure the weight purportedly lost by a human body when the soul departed the body upon death. MacDougall weighed dying patients in an attempt to prove that the soul was material and measurable. These experiments are widely considered to have had little if any scientific merit, and although MacDougall's results varied considerably from 21 grams, for some people this figure has become synonymous with the measure of a soul's weight. http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp.

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2003: 2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated the:...

Film: :This article is about motion pictures. For other uses of "film", see photographic film or film (disambiguation)...

Guillermo Arriaga: Guillermo Arriaga Jord?n (b. in 1958) is an award-winning Mexican author, screenwriter and producer. He received the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay Award for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada....


21 Grams related Images and Photos (experimental)

21 Grams
21 Grams
21 Grams DVD (Widescreen)
21 Grams DVD (Widescreen)
21 Grams DVD (Widescreen)
21 Grams DVD (Widescreen)

~ Table of Content ~

Introduction
Plot summary
External links
 


 

~ Related Subjects ~

2003 (2) - Death (1) - Scientific (1) - Common year starting on Wednesday (1) - Duncan MacDougall (1) - 1900 (1) - Soul (1) - Gregorian calendar (1) - Mexican (1) - 2005 Cannes Film Festival (1) - The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (1) - Photographic film (1) - Film (disambiguation) (1) - 1958 (1) - Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (1) -
 

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