Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The plot is unraveled in segments that do not follow a chronological order so it can be confusing at times if you get distracted while watching. The plot surrounds three separate lives that are connected thought unfortunate events. The film covers loss, grief, vengeance, love, and belief through the three lives that find themselves forever changed through their related circumstances. The film is dark at times and shows how loss and tragedy erode otherwise normal individuals.

21 GramsIts grotesque tone and dark theme projected in a convoluted way is definitely thought provoking and intriguing enough to invest in it but as much as vocal the feature is about its characters, it somehow fails to connect with the audience to the level as it should. Guillermo Arriaga's script is uproaring and upbeating and when projected through Alejandro G. Inarritu's vision, the execution surpasses its witty script. The performance objective is satisfactory coming from amazing cast like Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benecio Del Toro. 21 Grams is not your "happy-go-lucky" feature but under Alejandro's surveillance, he somehow manages to makes a definite point out of this chaotic mess.

An egg is an egg no matter how you scramble it. You can whip it into a meringue or a soufflé or an omelet, but it still retains its eggness. The same thing, I think, is true of melodrama: There's no disguising its improbabilities and coincidences, its short cuts around motive and characterization, its intent to surprise and shock. Mind you, I don't have anything against melodrama. Some of my favorite films are melodramas, just as some of our greatest plays, even some of Shakespeare's tragedies, are grounded on melodrama. It's just that you have to approach it without pretension, which is, I think, the chief failing of Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. The melodramatic premise is this: The recipient of a heart transplant falls in love with the donor's widow, who then persuades him to try to kill the man who killed her husband. It's the stuff of which film noir was made, but Iñárritu takes screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga's premise and scrambles it, using non-linear narrative devices -- flashbacks and flashforwards -- and casting an unrelievedly dark tone over it, as well as reinforcing a pseudoscientific message in the title, which is explicated at the end of the film. In 1907, a Massachusetts physician named Duncan MacDougall tried to weigh the human soul: He devised a sort of death-bed scales, which would register any loss of weight at the moment a patient died, thereby demonstrating to his satisfaction -- if not to the medical and scientific communities -- that the weight of the soul was approximately three-quarters of an ounce, or 21 grams. I suspect that Arriaga and Iñárritu meant the allusion to this bit of nonsense metaphorically, but it doesn't come off that way. By the end of the film, we are so weighed down with the misery of its protagonists that it feels like sheer bathos. This is not to say that 21 Grams is a total loss as a film. Iñarritu is one of our most celebrated contemporary directors, with back-to-back Oscars for Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015) to prove it. I just don't think he's found himself yet, but has become too caught up in narrative gimmicks that prevent him from delivering a completely satisfying film. There is much in 21 Grams to admire: The performances of Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, and Melissa Leo are as fine as their reputations suggest they would be. The narrative tricks are done with great skill, especially with the aid of cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who uses color to make each of the narrative segments distinct from the others, so that when the film cuts from one to another, the viewer feels better oriented. And there's no denying the emotional impact of the film as a whole. It could hardly be otherwise, given the pain suffered by the protagonists: Cristina (Watts), who lost her husband and her two little girls; Jack (Del Toro), the ex-con who accidentally killed them and believes that it was all because Jesus wanted it to happen; and Paul (Penn), who finds his chance at a new life marred by knowledge that it was at the expense of other people's happiness. But in the end, all of this suffering is off-loaded onto us without any compensatory feeling of having been enlightened by it. (charlesmatthews.blogspot.com)

I liked this film so much .. The story is good but Iñárritu style of telling the story makes it more interesting .. I didn't feel bored during the movie . You try to catch up with the events and what happened first and last , Who the hell are those guys , Are they good or bad !! makes you think the whole movie and even in the middle of it when you think you've got the event sequence and the story is told , it's still interesting , you can just enjoy the acting of the actors especially Naomi .. The film gives a meaning about what death and its circumstances bring to everyone around .. The story telling style is different and interesting ; it's not pure backwards ( like memento for example ) .. Scenes are shuffled in a way that makes you work your mind and enjoy this piece of art .. The only thing I wished it had been better is the music , That could have been more and more touching than what it is alreadyAbsolutely watchable , no regrets ..