Nice attempt at greatness
Written: Jan 20 '09 (Updated Jul 23 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Will Smith does quite well, so does Dawson
Cons: serious tear-jerker, inconsistent script
The Bottom Line: Seven Pounds is not the great film it wants to be, but it's still a very respectable effort.
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| wrestler's Full Review: Seven Pounds |
Seven Pounds is, for many reasons, an interesting movie. It stars Will Smith as Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who truly takes the concept of the Good Samaritan to another level. However, we spend about the first hour of the film wondering why Thomas acts the way he does. Why does he behave like a complete jerk when on the phone with a blind salesman (Woody Harrelson)? And then, what's with the 180-degree turn and tracking down people he deems to need favors? And why does he check into a low-life motel? You would think the IRS pays relatively well.
There are certain things we do know. We know that for some reason, he won't talk to his brother. We also know that a young, pretty cardiac patient named Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson) catches his eye. It's easy enough to understand him. Dawson glows on screen. She's so pretty she still looks beautiful despite the fact that she's made up to look beat up after spending time at the hospital. Thomas gets on her case. He shields her accounts from taxation. He pays her visits and helps her around with shores. Meanwhile, we get to meet his friend Dan (Barry Pepper), who owes him a favor. What that favor is we don't know.
The Thomas character is very interesting. He can be very firm, even violent. He can be charming and even extremely kind. And he exudes pain. Posa senses this instantly. So do we. Smith puts on a good showing in this film. There is a scene between him and Rosario Dawson in his car that breathes authenticity. Let us just say for the sake of not giving away details that he is torn between his love for her and something else.
This type of movie seems to have become Will Smith's second type-casting niche in Hollywood. Seven Pounds isn't subtle in its attempts to resemble The Pursuit of Happiness. In fact, it screams it on every rooftop. Let Will Smith grow a little bit of hair, which changes him completely and we're off. It's a shame because it's unlikely we'll know in the near future whether Smith is capable of doing more. Here is a handsome man with some acting skills and a great voice, and he's a victim of Hollywood's love for him. Here's to hoping they'll let him try something else if he wants to.
The shame with Seven Pounds is that it's a good movie, but it could have been much better. The movie starts and we realize that is there is something that Ben Thomas is torturing himself with because he cannot forgive himself for it. Now that is an interesting idea. The problem is that it doesn't take Einstein to guess what becomes the focus of the film becomes when we first see Rosario Dawson. Dawson is beautiful, charming and she's really good at crying. We want to like her the second we see that wide smile of hers. But somehow, every time we were reminded of Thomas' inner struggle, I was reminded of how much more interested I was in this aspect of the story than I was in the romantic saga I knew in advance would take place. I'm also ambivalent on the very final action of the Will Smith character, during which we see what he was planning all along. Is the act selfless or just plain selfish? I keep going back and forth on this.
Another thing that would have been really great is if the film hadn't been so obsessed with being a tear-jerker. The best analogy I can find to describe several scenes between Will Smith and Rosario Dawson is that these scenes are like a thin cake with far, far too much icing on it. I'm sure that such scenes will appeal to the kind of people (not to say women) who love to make themselves cry. But for those like myself who see a great deal of difference between tear-jerking scenes and dramatic ones, the former are annoying and hardly add anything to the experience, in fact, they aren't any help at all.
The conclusion has a few interesting punch lines. Too bad they're buried in an endless stack of manipulative moments, which mostly feature Rosario Dawson crying. In all spite of all my criticism, this is a good movie. Even though he's sometimes handcuffed by the script, Smith delivers a good performance. He and Dawson have a good chemistry together. Unfortunately, it could have been so much better with less manipulative moments, tighter direction and better focus on the more interesting aspect of the story, which is what is tearing up Will Smith from the inside. Shame.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Epinions.com ID:
wrestler
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Member: Alexandre Turp
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 18 members
About Me:
Evolution is all that matters.
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