21 Grams
When I saw the name of this movie, my first thought was "I have to see this movie". After reading the reviews I realized the movie is not what I thought it was. It may well be a great movie. The reviews all give it a high rating and there are even whispers of an Oscar nomination for a few of the actors and the director. It's just not what I was expecting.
Back some years ago I read an article about Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts. It seems that Dr. MacDougall had this belief (a belief shared by many, including myself) that human beings are possessed of souls which depart their bodies after death and that these souls have detectable physical presences. As much as we 'believe' in the concept of the 'soul', it remains something that can only be believed through faith. It is not something we can see or touch. In 1907 Dr MacDougall set about conducting expirements seeking to find proof of the existence of the human soul. In his expriments Dr MacDougall placed dying patients upon a scale in order to determine if the weight of the human body lost any dissernable weight at the exact moment of death. To make a very long story short, the result of this experiment was that according to the good Doctor, at the exact moment of death the body lost apporximatel 21 grams in weight. When this expirement was conducted on dogs, no such weight loss was detected.
I found this facinating and to this day still remember reading about it. So naturally when I saw the title of the movie "21 Grams" I assumed that the movie would be about the Doctor, his expirements and the results. Much to my disappointment, that is not the case. While it appears 21 Grams is an excellent movie, it's not what I was hoping for. I think it would have made a great movie. Don't you?