70
Metascore
41 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliA stunning kaleidoscope of a motion picture - a mosaic of images that gradually resolves itself into a powerful tale of tragedy and redemption.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttA 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.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanParadoxically, 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.
- 80The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinA nearly unparalleled actor's showcase, the film boasts performances of impressive quality and quantity...Their complexity matches the film's.
- 70Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanWatts, 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.
- 60VarietyDavid RooneyVarietyDavid RooneyAmbitiously 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.
- 60NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenWhat 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.
- 50PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyToo-laborious meditation on life and death.
- 30New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerIt’s forceful, to be sure, but in a lurid way that suggests a telenovela that’s been baking in the sun too long.
- 30The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyThe 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]