Seven Pounds Reviews

a right smashing film - full of emotion - yet will smith is withdrawn all the way through - but it all becomes clear why - enjoyed it greatly.

Ben Thomas (Smith) was a good happy man, with a girlfriend he could love and confide in. She was the one he wanted, the one he could be with. All of this changes within a minute, Bens life is shattered, broken and all that he knew was lost. His girlfriend died and he was left with guilt for the deaths of Seven people, seven people whose lives he ended on one fateful night. Ben was never able to move on, but he did however try and make up for his own guilt. By drastically changing the lives of Seven people who he felt could use. Ben was a tax collector, a man who could make you or break you. Ben decides it is time for people to get good news. He helps Emily Posa (Dawson) Ezra Turner (Harrleson) and 5 other people. All the while dealing with his own guilt and remorse, while realizing changing seven people doesn’t make up for the seven lives he took. Ben doesn’t ever forgive himself, which leads to some tragic results for those he is trying to help.

Ben Thomas is a man divided by his own thoughts. He is challenging whether or not he is a good person or not. Does he deserve another chance at life, the chance to be happy. Ben is a man that the audience hates to begin with, he comes off as an arrogant jerk at the beginning, but that is easily explained near the end. Ben then goes from the object of everyone’s hatred to the one people will give there pity to. Ben is truly a dynamic character, who changes his views 3 times in less than 2 hours. He is a greatly developed, with characteristics that people can relate to as well as loathe at the same time. Ben hurts himself for the greater outcome, which the makes the audience see him as someone that they dont understand. Some people may even go as far as to say it is impossible to see why he did what he did.

With a character so impressively developed, it seems that there could be no way to make all of this shine through to the audience. Ben seems like that impossible character that one can only dream of playing, but no one could actually handle all that change and different emotion. Ben is handled though as perfectly as any other character ever developed for a dramatic film. Will Smith is the reason why Ben is who he is to the audience. Will is able to make us feel for Ben and then take it away just like that, because of the character. Will is able to make people view Ben as someone who messed yup and doesn’t deserve pity, and doesn’t deserve a second chance. It is all up to the individual to make the choice in this one. Some people may agree with Ben getting a second chance and other may not. Will Smith gives what I will call his best acting to date, never has he been so unique, so emotionally challenging. Will has done some awesome stuff, like Pursuit of Happyness (Which I have yet to see) Will has even handled comedy well with his comedic cover character in Bad Boys, and his alcoholic outspoken Hancock. But I have yet to see Will handle such an emotionally driven character, where there is no action to back him out of the proverbial bad acting situation, where there is no over dramatization that can back him out of the clichéd corner of doom. This is Will at his finest, which I will only hope and pray that he continues to do.

Rosario Dawson is a great actress, she is good at what she does, she gets good chances, but sometimes she has failed to hit it big. She failed to impress in films like Eagle Eye, The Descent and Alexander. All the while making up for it with such films like 25th Hour (Which will remain her best film ever) and Sin City. This film is the next film that can be added to her short but impressive list of greats. She plays Emily Posa, a woman who suffers from Heart Failure and will die unless she gets a heart. Ben stumbles upon her, making sure that she doesn’t have to pay her taxes in the allotted time. He gives her an extension and they become really great friends. Ben helps her out around her house, and she tries to understand who he is a person, all the while he tries so desperately to pull away not revealing to her who he really is, and what it is he had done to end up there with her. Emily just continues to see Ben as a guardian angel, someone sent there to watch over her, and give her one last bit of happiness before she dies from the disease that has been eating away at her for her whole life. Ben becomes much more than that, which is where the summary of Emily and Ben will have to stop due to the revealing of spoilers.

This film is driven, by rich and deep emotions that will touch your soul, if not you need to see someone for some help. It is one of the most realistic accounts of human emotion and guilt to ever be seen on the big screen. There were at least 3 scenes that brought me to the edge of tears, because of how powerful and moving real life depictions can be. Never before has there been a film that slowly reveals the pain of its protagonist, while it also tries to get you to hate the protagonist for what he was done. This film is probably the most honest and sincere piece of filmmaking since 21 Grams. This is the first emotionally charged film that I couldn’t tear my eyes off of since I watched Sean Penn tear apart the script he was given for 21 Grams. Will Smith is the glue that holds this masterpiece together. It appears good from the trailers, but once you leave the theatre you realize it is so much better than you could have ever envisioned it would be.

This film is one to be seen, its heart wrenching, intense, mind boggling, deep, understandable and still it leaves you wanting to talk, wanting to cry wanting to reach out and help someone why may need it. A deep and great film that a lot of people will have mixed emotions about.

As of this point There will be Spoilers. I wrote a review of the film with little to no revealing of the plot. If you have not seen the film yet and plan on doing so then do not read on because I will talking about some scenes that I rather enjoyed out of this film

The first scene that pops into my mind when discussing this is right at the beginning when Ben Thomas stops by the room of Inez the older lady in the hospital. Ben is deciding whether or not Stuart Goodman deserves an extension on his taxes, and upon talking with Inez Ben realizes that Stuart does not care for his patients the way he should. It is left to the audience to see that Goodman is mistreating his patients by not taking care of them, not washing them and then trying to come off as a good man. This scene is powerful, just like many more to come, it shows what Ben is doing, it gives an insight to the help he wishes to give, before ever revealing the wrong he did. This scene gave Ben an identity as a good man, a helpful man.

The Second scene that comes to mind when thinking about this film is the Car accident scene. When Ben looks down at his phone to read the text messages and he drifts over the yellow line. This scene is the one scene that differs from all the rest. Its gives us Ben Thomas in a new light, a man who may have been driven by guilt in order to save the lives of Seven strangers, without the accident, he probably would have never even decided to save those Seven people. It makes you think though that those Seven people could have either died, or been left the way they were simply because Ben might not have had his accident. It makes you question whether or not Ben is in it for the greater good or just to make himself feel better about who he is.

There are a lot of scenes that stick out in this film, but probably none will stick with you as much as the talk with Dr/Briar/ suicide scene. Ben asks the doctor about Emilys chances of survival and she’s that it is very low with maybe a three percent chance that she could live or that she could find a heart. Ben is then shown at his apartment where he fills up his bath tub with ice and gets in with a deadly jellyfish that ultimately kills him. Then it flashes to Emily who’s pager goes off and she looks for Ben. Ben is not there, as the audience already knows because he is the one giving her the heart. This scene really does bring you to the verge of tears. It is so flawlessly shot, and the emotions, the perspectives, the reality and the sadness are all caught with such gracefulness that one can only try and hold back the tears. Ben is shown once again as the tragic hero, the one we can all relate to after having done something wrong that ends up harming others. Ben is shown as the man who will give great sacrifices, all the while we the audience know what he has done and why it is he is left feeling his has no other choice but to end his life this way. Ben ends the film as someone of great change, someone who after doing something wrong decided to make up for his wrong. In the end Ben took the lives of 8 people, one being himself, but ultimately if you look at it in a positive manner, Ben saved people, it doesn’t make up for it, because that is how it was meant to be. Something’s had no real explanation, but in the end the only life that didn’t fit in to the whole it is your time to go was Ben himself. He purposely changed his timing, he wasn’t meant to die in the car accident, because he was meant to love again to give himself to love, to make up for what he did.

It was a great film, despite being a little depressing and somewhat a downer, this film will hit you later on when you get home from seeing it. A great film that everyone should see and embrace as the hero-tragedy it is.

"In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine."

Every frame of director Gabriele Muccino's Seven Pounds feels manipulatively engineered for one purpose: tear-jerking. On an emotional level, one could decree that this motion picture is satisfying as it indeed contains powerful moments. Yet on an intellectual level, the film is disappointingly shallow as it shamelessly defies logic with ridiculous plot contrivances and unconvincing character behaviour. Seven Pounds is a strange little movie - it's part romance fable, part maudlin study in grief and part puzzle, and it visibly hopes to grab the attention of the Oscar committee. The film is intended to be somewhat depressing in order to move on an emotional level, but as a result of the deliberate pacing and the hollow core (seriously, what was the point of the movie?) it's ultimately a depressing, notoriously unenjoyable cinematic snooze-fest. Seven Pounds suffers from being too earnest and sentimental as well as overdone and grim...even when it's supposed to lift our spirits. As a love story it's substandard and as a redemption story it's pretty ridiculous.

The basic story of Seven Pounds, beyond the narrative shuffle and existential pondering, is fairly interesting. But not much of this plotline can be revealed because the movie has been foolishly designed to make the most fundamental plot point a spoiler! At its most rudimentary level, the story concerns IRS agent Ben Thomas (Smith) who sets out to help the lives of seven strangers in a journey of personal redemption. Flashbacks gradually reveal why Ben has become so bizarre and solitary, and divulge the true nature of Ben's mission. But all the narrative trickery and emotional manipulation only place Ben further out of the audience's reach as he moves through the plot like an indomitable Terminator devoid of palpable motivations. Seven Pounds is not easy to predict, but the ambiguity of Ben's quest erodes the effectiveness of the overall experience as Ben's enigmatic misery and unclear motivations trigger head-slapping frustration. Eventually the story grows stale and is unable to generate sufficient intrigue as the film progresses. With Ben's motives left in the dark until the end, not everyone will have the patience to stick with the film to learn the answer to its riddle.

Seven Pounds conveys its story in a non-linear and seemingly haphazard manner, confounding and confusing as a means to conceal the "twist" until the final act. Unfortunately, the filmmakers miss their mark - anyone with a brain will be able to decipher the film's final trajectory within the first thirty minutes (particularly because the movie commences with one of the last scenes). Probably the biggest problem is that it's impossible to easily accept Ben's behaviour. Guilt may be a powerful motivator and the quest for redemption can be obsessive, but Ben should pursue his objectives with more believable human behaviour patterns. As it is, his behaviour is downright silly (similar to a lot of the film's contrived proceedings).

By any standard, Ben Thomas is not a nice person. He invades the private lives of critically ill people and collects their personal information under false pretences. Ben runs little con games on these people before judging them, and this is both intrusive and morally dubious. On top of this, his unexpected relationship with Emily is dishonest - he refuses to divulge any information about himself. Seven Pounds also ignores the fact that meddling with the lives of strangers incurs responsibilities. At one point Ben gives his expensive beach house to an abused woman (Carillo) and her young children as a gesture of charity. Ben chooses this beneficiary on the basis of a few endorsements and a brief, unproductive meeting. It may seem like a nice gesture, but this would be doing more harm than good - the woman has no way of paying the taxes on the house, nor will she have money for the house's upkeep. She'll likely run into hassles with suspicious neighbours, lawyers, and perhaps even Ben's family. Chances are the house will be taken away from her, and Ben's gesture will be in vain. On top of this, in a symbolic, stupid subplot, Ben somehow acquires a box jellyfish (!) that lives in a tank filled with tap water (!!) until it's required for its intended purpose.

Here's the unforgivable problem: Ben forces his help on people without their consent or even their knowledge. He gives some of these people gifts that would be morally unacceptable under normal circumstances. Ben's selfless altruism is conceived on the basis of simple math: if you break seven bottles, you must replace the seven bottles. This is, of course, utter simplistic nonsense. One should act out of moral commitment as opposed to some crazy notion of guilt. But more importantly, the "terrible event" that haunts Ben's past was an accident. He was careless, yes, but no more culpable than any other person who does something foolish. Seven Pounds wraps up with a heart-wrenching (or at least they're supposed to be) series of overly mawkish soap-opera epiphanies. The last moment of the film, during which two people are seemingly drawn together by Ben's acts, is extremely tacky - sentimentally flawed and ethically questionable. Unfortunately, the first half of the movie hasn't earned the investment required for a big emotional finish as it's far too boring, and the ending falls flat.

This is Will Smith's second collaboration with director Gabriele Muccino (the brilliant Pursuit of Happyness being their first) who continually plies heavily dramatic performances from the actor who's famous for featuring in comedic roles. Smith is an accessible and likeable performer, but his charisma seems somewhat forced here...and he looks more constipated than tortured from time to time. Rosario Dawson, playing alongside Will Smith, is fairly credible and natural. But Dawson's character, a terminally ill yet full-of-life patient, is familiar in the cinematic realm of tear-jerkers, and it's hard to find something new to engage with. Woody Harrelson is given a small but crucial role here, and he's fairly memorable. Also look out for Barry Pepper who makes the most of his restricted screen-time.

Muccino and screenwriter Grant Nieporte clearly strived to create an uplifting motion picture, but in the long run Seven Pounds is uncomfortable and depressing. Although initially involving, the story's big reveal occurs too late, and even the most determined viewer will have trouble maintaining interest. Seven Pounds is more exasperating than riveting. While it's refreshing to behold a star vehicle that demands patience and attention, even an extremely enjoyable film needs to be succinct. Seven Pounds is an exercise in self-indulgence - it's a collage of melodramatic scenes (emotion is amplified by intrusive music during these scenes as well) followed by an ending that fails to deliver a big emotional payoff.

3.8/10

After following the hype for this movie, I was a little disappointed at the end product. I heard that they had a closed set and were carefully guarding the story line so that no one would let the cat out of the bag. Don't get me wrong the acting was very well done. Smith does another excellent job portraying his character. Dawson was also great in her role.

I just felt for all the suspense they were trying to build up, it didn't live up to a very suspenseful movie. I kind of figured out what he was going to do in the movie in about the first ten minutes. Then I just had to wait around and figure out how he was going to put all the pieces together. To be honest, I thought the pacing of the movie was pretty slow.

If you are a fan of Will Smith, you probably won't be disappointed in this movie. But if you are watching it because of the hype, you may not enjoy yourself as much as you had hoped.

Flash

I was waiting for something different. I don't know what exactly but different. And I liked it though during the movie I got a bit confused. I started putting the things together through the end and it's interesting somehow.

It gets really moving and beautiful though sad too.