Seven Pounds
An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
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- Cast:
- Will Smith , Rosario Dawson , Woody Harrelson , Michael Ealy , Barry Pepper , Elpidia Carrillo , Robinne Lee
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Reviews
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
This is the first time I write a review for a movie, but Seven Pounds encouraged me to release my feelings. This movie is one of the most emotional and deep movies I've ever watched! It takes you to another world where you think and question everything about our lives, death, and sacrifice. It takes you to a very deep level of thinking where you ask yourself if your life has a value or not, and what could add a value to this life. I think the last scene tells everything about this movie, when the heart and the eyes of the same person gather again in two different bodies, that was strongly emotional!
Continuing my Plan To Watch Every Will Smith movie in order, I come to Seven Pounds (2008)For the last few years, Smith had being mixing it up, with a serious movie followed by a more commercial one. Following on from Hancock, he was back in the serious category. Plot In A Paragraph: IRS Tax Collector Ben Thomas (Smith) a man with a secret, embarks on an extraordinary journey by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.This features one of the best performances of Will Smith's career, and it was pretty much totally ignored by movie goers and the academy voters. Directed by Pursuit Of Happyness Director Gabriele Muccino and without his trademark facial hair, Smith shows some real emotions here. Usually it is a real sadness. He is definitely a depressed man, but he is an angry man too. He can be a nasty SOB insulting Woodly Harrelson's Ezra one minute, but he can show tenderness, and a real willingness to bend the rules on some cases. If he feels they deserve a break. It really is quite a performance. I'm not going to lie, I shed a tear at the end!! It's a shame this movie seems to be forgotten about, as like Six Degrees Of Separation, it proves Will Smith really can act. Rosario Dawson is much better than she was in Men In Black 2, you feel Barry Pepper's pain, whilst Woody Harrelson is surprisingly touching. The first hour of Seven Pounds you don't really know what is happening, as he checks in to a flea bag Motel and starts looking for people to help, and I won't ruin it here, for those who have not seen it. Even the trailer (which I watched after the movie) did not give away what his plan, motives and reasons were. But all told, he helps 8 people by the time the credits roll. Seven Pounds ended Smiths run of 8 consecutive movies grossing over $100 million at the domestic box office. Which is a shame, as I think it's just as good, if not a tad better than Pursuit Of Happyness. Seven Pounds grossed $69 million at the domestic box office to end 2008 the 46th highest grossing movie of the year.
If you need/want to cry, really sob and be rent asunder: Watch this film. I haven't been such an emotional wreck since The English patient. Superb underrated movie, with Will Smith truly giving a subtle, nuanced performance. Ms Dawson too, and is just stunning. What an aesthetic.I got the premise with the haunting imagery, the flashbacks, quite early on, but that didn't detract from the humanity of this film. The torment suffered. The willingness to give, but to go that far without forgiving yourself?
The concept is interesting, but the film lacks emotional complexity. Not terrible, but they missed a good opportunity for a beautiful film ultimately about love. With the exception of Rosario Dawson, the film doesn't have characters with enough depth for the audience to genuinely care about the final outcome of the movie. Will Smith is capable of amazing work, and he has several nice delicate scenes of rage and sadness, but overall is feels like a performance that was Oscar bait. For a movie about grief, love and redemption, there are too many surface level emotions created by an extremely talented group of actors. The director needed to pull more out of his actors for this ending to be worth the journey. Without that emotional depth, the end of the movie almost seems misplaced and unnatural to the rest of the tone throughout, like it's trying too hard to make you feel something instead of actually feeling something.