Seven Pounds
Review by Matthew Rodgers
If you thought The Pursuit of Happyness was schmaltz dipped in sugar and coated in the sickliest sweet honey possible, yet still found the understated direction, transfixing central performance and rewarding feel-good conclusion enough to justifiably so, label it an Oscar baiting success and tear summoning crowd pleaser, then you might just fall for director Gabrielle Muccino and megastar Will Smith’s re-teaming and this little puzzle-box of a movie, Seven Pounds.
Ambitiously tackling everything from life and death, friendship, redemption and countless other preachy topics, it’s hard to sum up what Seven Pounds is about without ruining the surprise, in fact the first thirty minutes are extremely frustrating because it has the air of a movie with the opening reel missing, but this just adds to the mystery (I guess).
For some unspecified reason Ben Thomas (Will Smith) is attempting to change the lives of seven people that he has on a list, the only thing that they have in common is that they are all in dire need of aid for very different reasons. Emily (Rosario Dawson) is bed stricken, Ezra (Woody Harrelson) is blind, Connie (Elpidia Carillo) has an abusive boyfriend, you get the idea. Why “Big Willie” is doing this and to what means is a question that Seven Pounds asks us to be very, very patient in understanding.
Smith has an unnerving way of making very flawed films extremely watchable – Men in Black II, I Am Legend, Hancock – surely not the success’ they would have been without Hollywood’s most bankable star? Seven Pounds is without doubt the worst of the lot and the magic was worryingly close to wearing off as the tedium unravelled. It is a performance of pain that is effortlessly etched on Smiths face during almost every frame, it’s highly believable and utterly convincing, and it’s enough to allow some emotional investment to Ben’s journey, and without that this just wouldn’t work. Logic dictates that if you cast Smith alongside Paris Hilton it might still be worth watching.
Investment is a key word with Seven Pounds, because it requires a lot with its slow pace and occasional clue dropping and it might be worth it but for the ludicrous and surprisingly predictable “twist” that brings proceedings to a thudding end, jaws will be on the floor for entirely different reasons than the filmmakers intended.
The Rosario Dawson/Smith relationship is at times genuinely tender and the films heart is in the right place but that’s not enough to recommend a film that if ten pounds had been paid to see it, you would at least demand seven pounds back.
