Seven Pounds

2008. Dir: Gabriele Muccino. Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Ealy and Barry Pepper. ●●●○○

Between Bad Boys 2 and Hancock Will Smith has opened 7 films with a total US gross of $1.27bn, an average of $182m. Seven Pounds will struggle to hit $75m, his lowest tally since 2001's Ali. This film does not deserve to be the film the ends Will's $100m run, although I can understand why it will be. It is a measured and sophisticated look at the nature of love and sacrifice, it touches on how you deal with guilt and the nature of goodness, it is at heart a very bleak story with a flwaed hero. It is a film which I am glad to recommend.

The film opens with Ben Thomas (Smith) waering a "cinnamon" short sleeve shirt making a 911 call and speaking directly to camera. I won't tell you the details of this call, for fear of spoiling the effect, but we then jump back a couple of months and show how Ben got to that situation. Ultimately Ben is suffering from guilt brought on from a car crash which killed 7 people, including his wife. Ben blames himself for the crash as he was checking a text message at the time - I'm not sure that explains why so many people died (none of them appear to be wearing seatbelts in the fuzzy flashbacks, although perhaps that's how I'd feel not how Ben feels).

In order to assuage the guilt Ben is dishing out random acts of kindness to strangers that he feels deserve a better or new life, or just to ensure they live. For instance he gives his house to a battered wife and one of his kidney's to an Ice hockey coach.



Most of the story revolves around him meeting Emily Posa (Dawson) via the medium of a tax audit, the beginnings of a romantic entanglement between the two of them and finally Ben offers the greatest gift he can for her.

Will Smith gives a thoroughly committed performance of a man ripped apart by what has happened to him and unable to share his deep inner thoughts. When his brother interrupts a romantic evening between Ben and Emily and Smith tells her he no longer wants to lie to her that line reading comes so naturally and fully we all want him to open up and tell all his dark secrets. Rosario Dawson is also superb, at one moment fragile and shrunken the next deeply territorial.

The rest of the parts are grossly underwritten. Woody Harrelson's blind pianist appears to be either sanctimonious or plain stupid. And Barry Pepper, an actor who always makes the periferies of the movies he's in shine, is criminally underused - shoved into a couple of scenes to say "I'm not sure" and cry. Joe Nunez, as the motel owner, provides some well earned comic asides without which the film would have been lesser.

Gabriele Muccino's direction seems more fluid than The Pursuit of Happyness, his english language debut (I really dislike that movie) but the decision to place the 911 call at the beginning of the movie, possibly to ratchet up some will he/won't he tension only succeeds in making the film a tragedy before you know it's end.

Philippe Le Sourd (A Good Year) does a great job as DP, letting you catch things in the corners of the screen which foretell where the film is going but without becoming ominous. Especially Ben's "pet", which was gorgeously lit at all times.

At this point I would consider giving the film a 4, only I didn't agree with the actions Ben took. Berate me in the comments for this if you like but I find the judging and testing to discover whether the other characters were good was distastefull, even if you will be donating your bone marrow. After all who are we to just whether others are good, or even if the people he killed in the car crash were good. Also the final gifts were done for the wrong reasons. You have to ask whether Ben's love for Emily was strong enough for him to save her or for him to stand by her, or was he merely distracted by her from completing the goals he had already set. And I'm not sure which route would have required more love.