21 Grams Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

21 Grams Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 4, 2017

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "21 Grams" (2003) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the disc is the archival featurette 21 Grams: In Fragments. In English, with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

A terrible accident dramatically changes the lives of a number of different people in Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 Grams -- an ex-convict and former alcoholic who has accepted God and become a family man, a seriously ill mathematician who at best has only a few months left to live and his wife who wants to have his child, and the mother of two beautiful girls.

Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro, Che) has made a lot of mistakes in his life for which he is now paying dearly. But God has given him the strength to become a new man, which is why he constantly praises Him. Even when he loses his job in an upscale golf club -- because a member complains that he has too many tattoos -- Jack thanks God because he believes that He has a plan for him. A couple of days after he is fired, Jack heads back to the golf club to pick up some personal belongings. His former manager sees him and offers to buy him a drink.

Paul Rivers (Sean Penn, Mystic River) desperately needs a heart transplant. If he does not get one soon, he is going to die. His wife, Mary Rivers (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist), has come back to help -- and have his child. Paul isn’t sure that having a child is a good idea but agrees to see an artificial insemination specialist with Mary. During the meeting, he learns that in the past Mary has had an abortion which is likely to affect her ability to conceive.

Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts, Funny Games) is a former drug addict who has managed to rebuild her life. Now she is the wife of a handsome man and the mother of two beautiful girls. Occasionally, she attends the local Narcotics Anonymous sessions to share her experience and encourage others to keep on fighting.

Jack, Paul, and Cristina’s lives become closely intertwined in a single moment -- Jack accidentally kills Cristina’s family and Paul gets her husband’s heart.

At first Jack runs away from the accident scene, but later on decides to turn himself in. He also begins questioning God. The more time he spends alone with his thoughts, the more depressed he becomes.

Paul recovers and decides to find out where his heart came from. He hires a private detective, who provides him with Cristina’s address. Eventually, he approaches her in a swimming club.

Various family members and friends try to convince Cristina that despite her enormous loss life goes on. But she rejects them and begins taking drugs again. Then, one day, Paul enters Cristina’s life.

Similar to director Inarritu’s critically acclaimed Amores Perros, 21 Grams has a fractured narrative whose various episodes continuously overlap each other creating a notably tense atmosphere. Important bits about the main characters are also revealed in a way that effectively adds to it.

21 Grams does not introduce any groundbreaking new material. But the manner in which the various episodes are linked and director Inarritu’s ability to capture the complex emotions each of the main characters struggles with after the tragedy transform it into an exceptional film.

The acting is superb. Penn is incredible as the dying mathematician who has been given a second chance in life and with it a brand new set of dilemmas. Gainsbourg delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance as his lonely wife. Watts undergoes a powerful character transformation that reveals what an enormously talented actress she is. The film, however, belongs to Del Toro whose character descends into his own personal hell.

*: In 2003, 21 Grams premiered at the Venice Film Festival. A year later, the film earned Oscar nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Naomi Watts) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Benicio Del Toro).

21 Grams Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 21 Grams arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

It appears that the release if sourced from the same master that British distributors Icon Home Entertainment accessed when they prepared their local release in 2003. I think that it is a very good master, but I also have to say that 21 Grams has a very unique stylistic appearance that makes it incredibly difficult to be absolutely certain what is intended and what isn't. To be perfectly clear, the entire film features a range of manipulations that basically produce very rough and edgy visuals that could be quite striking but also seriously misleading. For example, there are areas where contrast and sharpness levels are very clearly elevated to essentially distort delineation, while elsewhere you could see extreme color desaturation that basically produces very similar effects. (Steven Soderbergh's Traffic features many similar and in some cases even more extreme image manipulations). What makes it easy to conclude that the sharpening, for instance, is intended is the fact that the very hard edges are not present throughout the entire film, and that the crushed blacks actually evolve between daylight and indoor/nighttime footage (see the difference between 'sharper' images in screencaptures #7 and 8 and 'normal' images in screencaptures #3, 5, and 15). In other words, there are intended stylistic shifts that impact density, sharpness levels, contrast level, and a whole range of other things. Image stability is excellent. Also, there are no encoding anomalies to report. Ultimately, while I do believe that a new master will introduce some improvements in terms of density and overall balance, I think that the current presentation is very faithful to the way the film was envisioned by its creator. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your location).

21 Grams Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track handles the film's diverse soundtrack really well, though its actual dynamic range is unlikely to impress folks that appreciate the potent mixes that big-budget action films have. In other words, it has strong organic qualities and it is free of encoding anomalies.

21 Grams Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• 21 Grams: In Fragments - a standard featurette in which director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's explains how 21 Grams came to exist. Various cast and crew members also discuss the film. In English, with optional English and Spanish subtitles. (20 min).

21 Grams Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It took a long time for this excellent film to get a U.S. release, but as they say 'better late than never'. I believe that you already know everything that there is to know about the film, so I suppose the only thing left for me to do is encourage you to pick up the Blu-ray release. The technical presentation is very good and the release is actually very attractively priced. Consider picking up a copy for your collections, folks. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.