21 Grams
Focus Features | Release Date: November 21, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
5
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A stunning kaleidoscope of a motion picture - a mosaic of images that gradually resolves itself into a powerful tale of tragedy and redemption. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
You won't come out unaffected, because the depths of intimacy that the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu plumbs here are so rarely touched by filmmakers that 21 Grams is tantamount to the discovery of a new country. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
At the very least, look for it on 10-best lists next month, and there's every chance it will be a strong contender at the Oscars. Filmmaking so sensitive and intelligent deserves its weight in honors. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
As darkness falls over the movie landscape comes the year's darkest and best movie of them all - Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Unstintingly explores and exposes excruciating pain, raw grief, ruinous vengeance and life-affirming resilience, creating human portraits that are uncommonly exhilarating in their honesty. This is cinematic art in its highest form. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
This sad, staggering drama should be seen: out of the grimness, and the profound calamity, you can almost taste life in your mouth. Read full review
100
EmpireRob Fraser
21 Grams strives for greatness, and that's precisely what it achieves. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A stunning virtuoso performance by director, cast and crew. This movie knocks you out with an astonishing blend of hyper-realism, visual complexity and powerful themes. Read full review
90
Film ThreatD.W. Smith
Trust me, if you have a thirst for a good, dark drama, this one is a big gulp. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
What gives the film a formalist kick is that the story unfolds piecemeal as a series of nonlinear moments. What gives it soul are the three lead actors who pull the pieces together with devastating power. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Mr. Penn has been praised lavishly for his work in "Mystic River," in a role that was no reach for him at all, but this is one of the stand-out performances of his career, layered and exquisitely nuanced. And, remarkably, he's only one-third of a stellar ensemble.
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie itself is a miracle: tough, smart, relentless, provocative and, above all, serious. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
You won't see more explosive acting this year. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Stunningly photographed, largely with a hand-held camera, by Rodrigo Prieto (another member of the "Amores Perros" team) on gritty locations in Memphis and Albuquerque, 21 Grams is also a visual tour de force - and a rare Hollywood product depicting class differences with any kind of honesty. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Blessed with one of the strongest casts of any American movie this year, this bravura film, with its radical structure, is full of risk and reward. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
One of the most original, and certainly among the best-acted films this year, 21 Grams focuses on people on the verge of dying, having survived death or grasping at the slender threads of new lives. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Paradoxically, a movie that loses power the more you perceive what's actually going on in it. Laid end to end, the story is, to put it mildly, overwrought, fusing several cataclysms too many. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
A punch in the stomach of a movie. It is as ugly as it is beautiful, as full of peaks as of lows. It's a character-driven movie about people on an emotional edge who are ridding themselves of the things that can no longer work without inflicting damage. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
A nearly unparalleled actor's showcase, the film boasts performances of impressive quality and quantity...Their complexity matches the film's. Read full review
80
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Each and every one of the movie's 125 minutes is a moment of searing truth. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
A devastating and weighty picture. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
21 Grams tells such a tormenting story that it just about survives its style. It would have been more powerful in chronological order, and even as a puzzle, it has a deep effect. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
The payoff in 21 Grams comes not from watching characters achieve or overcome but from the recognition of their struggle not to give up the fight. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Despite juggled storytelling, the movie's compelling. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Watts, who has the most difficult scenes, is splendidly mercurial; what's surprising is that those professional storm clouds Penn and Del Toro are here as powerfully restrained as she is electrifying. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Uprooted from their home soil, González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga can't quite manage to make this gloomy, improbable stew of romance, film noir and pseudo-metaphysical speculation hang together. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Aside from a little eleventh-hour pseudo-mysticism about death and the weight of the soul, the story is really little more than a unusually gripping thriller. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
As in "Amores perros," Iñarritu and Arriaga slice and dice the chronology, which helps distract from the warmed-over story elements and focus attention on the superior performances. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Aimed at the brain, when it should have been one for the heart. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
While a splendidly acted and worthily grown-up movie, too often has the feel of a potboiling soap opera, with twists and turns that range from the grimly ironic to the absurdly sensational. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The fragmented style is distracting and ultimately annoying, robbing the story of its suspense and drive while contributing nothing except self-conscious style. Read full review
60
VarietyDavid Rooney
Ambitiously structured in non-chronological fragments that form a fascinating puzzle, this raw drama about grief, guilt and redemption becomes ultimately overextended and overwrought in its final stretch. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
What keeps this movie honest is the characters, each of them a mass of conflicting instincts, virtues and vices. You know Gonzalez Inarritu comes from outside Hollywood because he doesn't divide the world into heroes and villains. Read full review
50
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Too-laborious meditation on life and death. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Long on mood and moodiness, but at a loss as how to break any interesting human ground. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Luckily, Penn, Watts and Leo carry more weight than that; they keep this movie's two hours and five minutes from seeming like lost time. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It’s forceful, to be sure, but in a lurid way that suggests a telenovela that’s been baking in the sun too long. Read full review
30
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The kind of bad movie that makes a reviewer feel terrible. It has been put together with great sincerity, and yet, impassioned and affecting as some of it is, 21 Grams is also an arrogant failure. [24 November 2003, p. 113]
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Where "Amores Perros" was a feast of energy, wit and imagination, 21 Grams is like a starvation diet -- a movie that wallows so profoundly in its own misery that watching it is like atoning for some sin you didn't commit. Read full review
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
As usual with Penn, I don't completely buy the character, but I completely buy that he has brilliantly internalized SOMETHING. He goes to some weird psychological places, our Sean. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It's so laden with foreboding, you want to get out from under it and gasp for air. Read full review
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