Ok...this is a "heavy" and very depressing movie. I'm not going to deny it. It's not the kind of cinema that "lifts you up" and provides you an optimistic view of life - its quiet the opposite. In any case, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzαlez Iραrritu should be proud of himself, creating this masterpiece.

This movie is a study about life and death - or better, a study of all the situations that are lying between life and death. Human mortality appears some times slowly, with a torturing way (as in the case of professor Paul Rivers, who's waiting for heart transplant), some times suddenly, with a vicious way (as in the case of Cristina Peck, who's husband and two daughters got killed in a road accident) or sometimes irreversibly, with the feeling of sheer guilt (as in the case of ex-con, religious zealot Jack Jordan, who's responsible for the road accident). Cristina Peck donates the heart of her dead husband, which is transplanted to professor Paul Rivers, while the same time, Jack Jordan passes through his personal hell in jail, questioning his faith to God. Paul Rivers finds out whose heart got and decides to get in contact with Cristina Peck, who feels really devastated by her loss. The two of them starting an affair and Cristina convince Paul that they should kill Jack Jordan, who's soon, is going to be out of the jail. But repaying death with death is not the solution for no one...

Iραrritu creates a dark and heavy atmosphere by filming very close the faces of his actors and is really catching all the dramatic details, provided by their brilliant performances. But you have to admit his genius, in the way his is constructing the plot of his movie in montage: the whole movie is a continuous back and forth in time. It takes you sometime to understand fully this concept, but in the end you have to admit his brilliance.

What can someone say about the performances of Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro, holding the main roles of the movie...unbelievable acting performances indeed!! Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro are nominated for Academy Award and it would be really shame not to get it - but about the time I'm writing this review, the results are not yet known. Sean Penn really makes you wonder how better can be movie by movie...he was a very good actor, now is a Great actor and he's going on... Naomi Watts is really capable of high quality acting and her very convincing dramatic acting here, proves it. Benicio Del Toro creates thecharacter of Jack Jordan with a shocking, low tone and inner way and by my opinion - if I had to choose the best of three performances in this movie - is by far the best... It really worth the time, to take a look at this collection of critics about the movie.

"21 Grams" is really a must-see movie. Believing or not the theory that the exact time of our death we are loosing 21 grams of our weight, the movie clearly goes beyond that concept, to the area of the fundamental question "how you're dealing with death?".