An intimate portrait of three linked souls: this is Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. Jack, Cristina, and Paul, even though their life-courses are suspended for a period of grace, continue their (externally) self-destructive addictive behaviors—Cristina uses cocaine and worse, Jack flies into rages, and Paul smokes cigarettes that have already claimed his original issue heart—but each of them perhaps achieves a measure of internal salvation by the film's end.

The movie is apparently shot with digital equipment. Iñárritu and his DP Rodrigo Prieto accomplish tight, immediate closeups. But because of the grainy image, the viewer is nevertheless distanced from what's happening onscreen.

Pseudo-match cuts underscore the connections among the three characters. For instance, Cristina draws water to swallow pills, and this is followed by a shot of Jack trying to commit suicide by hanging himself from a plumbing fixture.

The narrative lines are chopped up into flashbacks and -forwards: call it Tarantino with a Vegematic. And yet the story is surprisingly easy to follow. The cuts forward and backward in time are disorienting, and the more effective for it. When we're jumped into a scene of kids playing, and we can't determine for the moment whether we're seeing Jack's children or Cristina's doomed ones, we perceive something new about both Jack and Cristina.

This pushmepullyu effect of the movie will put off some viewers, and has offended some critics. As I advised a woman in the ticket line, "I think that you will either love this movie or hate it."

posted: 10:16:28 PM