Jack Nicholson Was A Big Fan Of This Devastating 2003 Crime Thriller For One Reason

Jack Nicholson doesn't need to watch movies. He's been in enough of them himself to have ascended to legendary status long ago. Still, he's always remained a fan of the art form and at one point praised 2003's "21 Grams" for featuring one of Benicio del Toro's best performances ever.

As much as Nicholson maintained a reputation for being a devilish rogue of a man during his career as an actor, he was always a pretty smart dude. Even his "The Shining" director, Stanley Kubrick, thought Nicholson brought the "unactable quality" of intelligence to his roles. As such, the legendary star always had a very clear sense of what he liked and what he didn't. Sure, he preferred to embrace his caddish charm and seemed to be having a ball in so many of his most iconic roles. Kim Basinger even once called him "the most highly sexed human being" she'd ever met, adding, "He's just the devil." But he had a much deeper appreciation for his work, too. Part of the reason Nicholson disappeared from Hollywood is because he simply wasn't interested in what he once described to the Sydney Morning Herald as movies that featured "more bombs" and "more explosions." In other words, he knew what he liked, and he wasn't willing to compromise.

So, when Jack Nicholson says he's a fan of a movie, it actually means something. This isn't Quentin Tarantino delivering another one of his hot manure takes. Nicholson thinks about this stuff. With that in mind, you might want to consider checking out "21 Grams," which, according to the actor and multiple critics, features an absolute standout performance from del Toro.

In 2001, Jack Nicholson appeared in "The Pledge," which is one of those must-watch movies that nobody really talks about any more (for whatever reason). The thriller had Nicholson play a detective on the trail of a killer ahead of his retirement and also co-starred Benicio del Toro as Toby Jay Wadenah, an Indigenous American man who's accused of murder. It seems this is where the Puerto Rican actor first caught his co-star's eye.

In a 2004 interview with Total Film, Nicholson was asked which actors impressed him. After naming his "The Pledge" director Sean Penn, he went on to praise del Toro. "I made Sean keep so much of Benicio's scenes in 'The Pledge,'" he explained, "because I was just so crazy about what he was doing. I fought for every frame of it. I kept thinking, 'Oh man, he is so out there, it's unbelievable.'" But it wasn't just his first-hand experience of del Toro that impressed Nicholson. "He's with Sean in '21 Grams,'" the actor continued, "and I would say that Benicio's performance is the most interesting performance of a religious character that I've ever seen."

"21 Grams" debuted in 2003. Another crime thriller, this time directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, it uses three narratives to tell the story of a hit-and-run, weaving together its trio of timelines in a non-linear fashion. The film co-stars del Toro as an ex-con and born again Christian who reverts to substance abuse after he unintentionally kills a husband and two children in a car accident. It's a devastating movie that, beyond impressing Jack Nicholson, earned widespread praise from critics.

Back in 2000, Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga kicked off what they termed their "death trilogy" with "Amores perros." Like "21 Grams," the movie was a tapestry of vignettes that eventually coalesced via a car crash. The next movie in the trilogy was "21 Grams," which starred Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio del Toro in a dark tale of addiction, grief, and redemption that earned both Watts and del Toro Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations.

Jack Nicholson, meanwhile, had some experience with stories that revolved around a tragic death as the result of a car accident. Back in 1995, he had starred in Penn's "The Crossing Guard," playing a man haunted by the death of his daughter in a drunk driving collision. With "21 Grams," however, it was del Toro's performance as the man responsible for the accident that impressed him, and so many others, so much. Roger Ebert described the work done by all the film's stars as "astonishing," writing in his three-star review that "acting does not get much better than the work done here by Penn, del Toro, and Watts."

"21 Grams" isn't the greatest thing Iñárritu's ever done, but it's still one heck of a film. Indeed, in /Film's ranking of Iñárritu's movies, "21 Grams" came in fourth and is well worth checking out for more than del Toro's performance. Otherwise, Iñárritu and Arriaga's "death trilogy" ultimately concluded with 2006's "Babel," a heartbreaking drama starring Brad Pitt that had Ebert's full support this time.