21 Grams

21 Grams is a 2003 drama starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro. It was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga.
Like Arriaga's and González Iñárritu's previous movie, Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams is a movie which interweaves several plot lines, this time around the consequences of a tragic automobile accident. Penn plays a critically ill academic mathematician, Watts plays a grief stricken mother, and del Toro plays an ex-convict whose newly discovered Christianity is sorely tested in the aftermath of an accident
The movie was nominated in the 2003 Academy Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Benicio del Toro) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Naomi Watts).21 Grams is a movie which interweaves several plot lines, this time around the consequences of a tragic automobile accident. Penn plays a critically ill academic mathematician, Watts plays a grief stricken mother, and del Toro plays an ex-convict whose newly discovered Christianity is sorely tested in the aftermath of an accident.

The movie was shot in chronological order, but is edited in a non-linear arrangement where the lives of the characters are depicted before and after the accident. The three main characters each have 'past' 'present' and 'future' story threads, which are shown as non-linear fragments that punctuate elements of the overall story, all imminently coming toward each other and coalescing as the story progresses. Iñárritu may have been influenced by the silent film Intolerance (1916), though his approach is more complex.

As previously mentioned, the film is edited in a non-linear manner. The following is a linear, chronological summary of the plot:
Jack Jordan (Benicio del Toro) is a former convict who is using his newfound Christian faith to recover from drug and alcohol addiction.
Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) is a mathematics professor with a deteriorating heart condition who is less than a month from death unless he receives a new heart from an organ donor. Paul is badgered by his wife to donate his sperm so she can have a baby (presumably after his death). The two are civil to one another, yet distant.

Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts) is also recovering from drug addiction, and now lives a normal suburban life with a supportive husband and two children. She is a loving mother and active swimmer who left her days of drugs and booze behind.

These three separate stories/characters become tied together one evening when Jack accidentally runs over Cristina's husband and children with his truck, killing them. Her husband's heart is donated to Paul, who begins his recovery.

Cristina is devastated by the loss and turns to drugs and alcohol to ease her pain. Paul is excited about starting his new life and hesitantly agrees to his wife's idea of surgery and artificial insemination as a last-ditch effort to get pregnant. During consultations with a doctor before the surgery, Paul is informed that his wife aborted their child previously when the pair had just separated. Disgusted by this, Paul considers the abortion to be the last straw in their marriage. He ends their relationship, then becomes very inquisitive about whose heart he has; he learns from a source that the heart belonged to Cristina's husband. He begins to follow the widowed Cristina around town.

After running over the kids and husband, Jack is horrified at what happened. Despite his wife's protests to keep quiet and conceal his guilt, Jack tells her that his "duty is to God" and turns himself in. Incarcerated in a dilapidated jail cell, he claims that God betrayed him and, soon enough, loses his will to live, trying unsuccessfully to commit suicide. He is released after Cristina declines to press charges, as she relates that Jack's jailing will not bring her loved ones back. When Jack is released, he is unable to reincorporate himself into his normal family life, instead leaving home to live a transient worker existence. Wracked by guilt and the failure of his life, he works a manual labor job and burns off his newer tattoos (of a Christian nature) with a hot knife.

Paul uses an opportunity to meet with Cristina and he eventually reveals how the two of them are connected. Desperately needing one another, they begin to fall in love. Though Paul has a new heart, his body is rejecting the surgery - and Paul's outlook is grim. As Cristina begins to dwell more on her changed life and the death of her girls, she decides Jack must die. She guilts Paul into helping to murder him.

Paul meets with the person who originally tracked down Cristina for him and finds out information about Jack from him. He also purchases a gun from him. Then, he and Cristina check into a small-town motel when Jack is also staying, as he is working nearby. When Jack is walking alone, Paul grabs him and leads him out into a clearing at gunpoint, with the intention of killing him. Paul is unable to kill Jack, who himself is confused, shaking and pleading during the happening. Paul tells Jack to "just disappear" then returns back to the motel, lying to Cristina about Jack's "death." Later that night, while they are sleeping, Paul and Cristina are awakened by a knock on the door. It's Jack, who, still consumed by guilt and inner torment, now orders Paul to kill him and end his misery. There is a struggle, and Paul shoots himself with the gun in order to distract Cristina from killing Jack.

Jack and Cristina rush Paul to the hospital. The drama between Cristina and Jack remains unresolved (they meet in the waiting room after Paul's death, but do not speak). Cristina learns in the hospital that she is pregnant. After Paul's death, Cristina is seen tentatively preparing for the new child and Jack is shown returning home to his family.