21 Grams (US, 2003)

I couldn’t avoid comparing this flick to the previous one I saw a few hours ago. While tat one was full of tranquility this one was filled with violence. But the message is the same. Despite the slaying of people this one was still about renewal. That’s why at the end we see a pregnant woman. It is also about the bearing the burden of the consequences of our actions. The “stones” are less visible here, but they are just as heavy. As usual when a peculiar tidbit is presented as fact I became curious where the idea comes from (and whether it is true) that at the exact moment of death we all lose 21 grams from our body weight. While the narrator is musing about the nature of 21 grams of happiness, sadness or whatever fills our essence, I know that it is just a superficial approach. The meaning is not the amount, but the substance, what our life is. The people here are moving along a predefined path, that they are incapable of turning away from. The cutting of the movie, and shuffling of timelines and characters just emphasized the indestructible nature of these paths.