Best Supporting Actor 2003: Benicio Del Toro in 21 Grams

Benicio Del Toro received his second Oscar nomination for portraying Jack Jordan a born again ex convict whose life turns for a worse after a tragic accident.

21 Grams I found to be a strange film, since it has many scenes that should be emotional but are oddly distant. It never becomes interesting or effective and the odd structure is unnecessary rather than effective.

Del Toro's performance I was surprised and found it to be completely disappointing. Like the film Del Toro's performance seems like something interesting and emotionally powerful but instead is oddly distant. Del Toro underplays his role, and if you read my reviews you probably know I really like subtle acting but here Del Toro is not subtle he merely is basically nothing most of the time. Most of the time he just has the same depressed face almost throughout the entire performance. I found he did nothing with his eyes or face int his performance. He just kept the same face almost throughout and really did nothing with it.

Del Toro is not terrible but he is never interesting in this performance. He really failed to resonate at all. I found his choices odd and that he was never fully able to make his character understandable. He never made me believe the way he acted toward his children so harshly, or really why he gives up on life. He never really made me understand the character's initial faith than loss of faith. He just mostly kept him with that one face that made him nothing to me. He has only one scene where he loses that face when he yells at one scene he is okay at this but he still adds no more complexity to the character. I think Del Toro and this character could have made a great performance but for some reason almost every thing in the film came off the same way so maybe it really was all the director's fault, I am not sure. Either way what is on screen never impressed me and merely left completely surprised with an actor who I usually find is far better than this.