Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (AMORES PERROS) directs this staggeringly intense drama concerning three families whose lives fatefully intertwine through a series of tragic events. With jumbled chronology that jumps from one shocking event to the next in an increasingly chaotic maelstrom, 21 GRAMS is relentlessly gritty in its content and its aesthetics. The title refers to the amount of weight that a human body loses at the moment of death, but the story begs the question: How much is gained?

Paul (Sean Penn) has less than a month to live, stalled on the waiting list for a heart transplant, and his wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is determined to get pregnant with his child before it's too late. Meanwhile, Cristina (Naomi Watts) is a happy mother with a loving husband and two daughters but she loses her family in an instant to an unpredictable accident. Finally, Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is an ex-con and born-again Christian struggling to support his wife and two children while battling his own guilty conscience. When these three parties come together, explosively, they make each other behave in impulsive, violent, and destructive ways. 21 GRAMS takes viewers on a jolting journey through sickness, suffering, morality, revenge, and last but not least, the sometimes welcome peace of death.

Theatrical Release: November 21, 2003 (NY/LA)

This movie screened in October 2003 as part of the 41st New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Dual Layer/Single Side
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - French
Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 Surround Sound - English

Sean Penn: Actor, Director
Benicio Del Toro: Actor, TRAFFIC (2000)
Naomi Watts: Actress
Charlotte Gainsbourg: French Actress
Melissa Chessington Leo: American Actress
Clea DuVall: Acress
Danny Huston: American Director, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

Alejandro González Iñárritu: Mexican Director, AMORES PERROS (2000)

Alejandro González Iñárritu: Mexican Director, AMORES PERROS (2000)
Ted Hope: Producer
Robert Solerno: Producer, 21 GRAMS (2003)

Guillermo Arriaga Jordan: Screenwriter; AMORES PERROS (2000)

Gustavo Santaolaya: Film Composer, AMORES PERROS (2000)

"...Inarritu cements his reputation as a boldly talented filmmaker with his first English-language project, 21 GRAMS..."
"...It's a startlingly crafted movie, with several extraordinary performances..."
"...The film is full of engagingly high-strung performances..."
"...There are few movie pleasures as satisfying as an actor soaring to meet the challenge of his or her gift. It's a pleasure that's delivered threefold in 21 GRAMS..."
"...That Inarritu shapes something redemptive out of blasted lives is proof that he is a filmmaker of rare and startling grace..."
"...[A] complex, time-fractured narrative....The most shattering performance comes from Naomi Watts..."
"This is cinematic art in its highest form."
"[T]he film is a virtuoso accomplishment of construction and editing."
"Inarritu remains primarily a poet of the visible world..."
"Watts and Del Toro - both Oscar-nominated for their roles - positively roar with restraint, while the lesser known Melissa Leo matches Benicio every step of the way..."