21 grams. They say we lose 21 grams when we die. I say you'll lose 2 hours of your life and thank god you've got more optimism in your makeup than the messages drilled home here. This may just be the most cloying, overbearing, and pessimistic film ever made.
***Spoilers ahead***
The film is jam-packed and brimming with over 2 hours of tragedy, misery, and generally depressing themes. There isn't a single solitary moment of optimism or happiness shown in this film except for what you might speculate or conjure in your own mind after the film decides to end and leave you guessing what might happen in the future for these people. Murder? Got it covered. Suicide? Yep. How about drug addiction, slow death from illness, the denouncement of one's faith, or abortion? It's all here! It's as if the film maker went down a checklist of all the darkest themes he could think of to stuff into this film. Granted, I wasn't looking for a sweet hollywood ending, but come on! What's the ultimate message here? Certainly not perseverance or how the human spirit rises above adversity and life changing tragedy, because nobody really does in this film. In the end, the film poses the questions: when we die, what do we gain, what do we lose, yet by all accounts it makes no attempt to answer these questions thoughtfully other than what it's shown you for 2 hours prior: a very one sided, depressing view of little hope with seemingly no redemption or light at the end of the tunnel.
Granted, the film is not without it's merits. The acting is superb, the non-linear telling of the story out of sequence is interesting (though no longer a unique style of film making and done much better in films like Memento), and the grainy, drab, washed out shooting style gives the film an interesting look and helps maintain the consistent theme of dread. Hell, it even managed to keep me engaged 3/4 way through before I decided that it was unbearable and painfully apparent that the film was prepared to give up on itself (similar to how main characters chose to give up on their lives). And that's really the problem I have with the film. It's downright fatalistic! Overall, a stylish yet shallow, one-dimensional, downer of a film.
***Spoilers ahead***
The film is jam-packed and brimming with over 2 hours of tragedy, misery, and generally depressing themes. There isn't a single solitary moment of optimism or happiness shown in this film except for what you might speculate or conjure in your own mind after the film decides to end and leave you guessing what might happen in the future for these people. Murder? Got it covered. Suicide? Yep. How about drug addiction, slow death from illness, the denouncement of one's faith, or abortion? It's all here! It's as if the film maker went down a checklist of all the darkest themes he could think of to stuff into this film. Granted, I wasn't looking for a sweet hollywood ending, but come on! What's the ultimate message here? Certainly not perseverance or how the human spirit rises above adversity and life changing tragedy, because nobody really does in this film. In the end, the film poses the questions: when we die, what do we gain, what do we lose, yet by all accounts it makes no attempt to answer these questions thoughtfully other than what it's shown you for 2 hours prior: a very one sided, depressing view of little hope with seemingly no redemption or light at the end of the tunnel.
Granted, the film is not without it's merits. The acting is superb, the non-linear telling of the story out of sequence is interesting (though no longer a unique style of film making and done much better in films like Memento), and the grainy, drab, washed out shooting style gives the film an interesting look and helps maintain the consistent theme of dread. Hell, it even managed to keep me engaged 3/4 way through before I decided that it was unbearable and painfully apparent that the film was prepared to give up on itself (similar to how main characters chose to give up on their lives). And that's really the problem I have with the film. It's downright fatalistic! Overall, a stylish yet shallow, one-dimensional, downer of a film.