"21 Grams"

(Focus Features)

Rating: 1.0 or 5.0 out of five

It's hard for me to say whether "21 Grams" was the most inventive and brilliant film of the year or a piece of masturbatory garbage that's intentionally confusing so people will think it's the most inventive and brilliant film of the year.

So I'll write two reviews:

1. "21 Grams" is the most brilliant film of the year. By intertwining four seemingly separate stories, Alejandro Gonz‡lez In‡rritu gripped me and had me on the edge of my seat for two hours.

Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benecio del Toro star as three characters who are somehow affected by a tragic car crash.

Paul Rivers (Penn) is a mathematician stricken by lung cancer, Christina Peck (Watts) is a housewife who loses her husband and two daughters, and Jack Jordan (del Toro) is a former junkie who's recently found Jesus.

The thriller takes off as there are hints about how each character's life and death influences the others. Yet time and space are never precisely defined, forcing the audience to actively watch the movie.

The film is so much more than your average thriller. It blends real drama with suspenseful sequences, while letting veteran actors work the screen.

Del Toro is especially memorable as the Jesus-freak who starts to find out that God doesn't have all the answers.

Like "Memento", this film should open more doors to the unconventional storytelling that Hollywood is so afraid to attempt.

2. Congratulations, Alejandro Gonz‡lez In‡rritu. You sure did impress the imbeciles with your "innovative" movie. Unfortunately, you didn't trick me.

Intentionally deceiving and awkwardly edited, the film is a complete wreck. If it wasn't made up of four intertwined stories, it might have been an average thriller. Unfortunately, it turns out to be well below average.

Instead of giving us a main character to root for, we get three losers who cry, do drugs and occasionally kill someone.

The most overrated film of the year, "21 Grams" pales in comparison to In‡rritu's previously brilliant "Amores Perros." With the same structure in "21 Grams" as "Perros," you'd think that Hollywood had tried to get a sequel out of In‡rritu.

You'd also think a skilled actor like del Toro could have provided some depth to his eccentric character, but he spends the second half of the movie in the same grumpy, emotionless state.

Thankfully, for anybody who was confused by the movie, it's wrapped up in a nice bow at the end. Everything finally makes sense, just like in the "Harry Potter" books.

But hey, you might like it. It's craptacular.