Dead Weight

A review of Seven Pounds.

Seven Pounds, written by Grant Nieporte and directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) is heavy, and not in the good way. It tries very hard to be what I think of as a “Statement Movie.” By my definition, Statement Movies are self-important, pretentious movies that consciously set out to send a message. These movies are rarely effective, because they get bogged down in conveying whatever life lesson preoccupies the script, instead of organically allowing the story being told to reach each viewer as it may. Statement Movies do not appeal to me, mostly because I strongly object to being told how to think or feel. I have no issue with movies that make me think (and even those which manipulate my emotions to a certain degree, The Pursuit of Happyness being a good example) and which have that goal as their primary objective; in fact I think it is a valid and often noble use of art. To my mind, however, Statement Movies are the bastardization of this form of art, and for me, Seven Pounds falls squarely into that category.

Given the foregoing, it will come as no surprise that I did not enjoy the experience of seeing Seven Pounds. The majority of the issues that I had with the film were with the script. I disliked the story and the premise from which it sprang, and given that baseline, it would be difficult to enjoy any aspect of the movie. Among my problems with Seven Pounds is the fact that in both its marketing campaign and the unfolding of the story, it attempted to play “hide the premise.” Its tag line, “Seven Names. Seven Strangers. One Secret.”, is disingenuous, because the secret is self-manufactured. As I promise at the top of my site, this is a spoiler-free environment, so I will not give away Ben Thomas’ (Will Smith) “secret,” but I believe the story might actually have been more effective without obscuring the inciting incident of Ben’s journey. Instead, the first 20-30 minutes of the movie were confusing in trying to determine what was real, who Ben was and in what chronology events were actually unfolding. The obfuscation felt unnecessary, contrived and as though a device was taking the place of actual substance because such substance was not available to be tapped into. What I can tell you about the plot of Seven Pounds without spoiling things is this: it's the story of how Ben Thomas, in the wake of a great tragedy, chooses to live his life, ultimately deciding to bestow seven people with invaluable gifts in an effort create right out of wrong, at least as Ben sees it.

I found a great deal of what occurred in Seven Pounds to be wildly implausible. There are certain “buys” that I’m willing to grant in the telling of a well-crafted tale, certain coincidences that might otherwise be a stretch, but that I’ll allow because a story has earned the right to rely on a contrivance or two. Seven Pounds stretched this concept too far and failed to earn “buys” I might otherwise have granted. For example (none of the following give anything significant away about the story), the ease with which Ben gains access to the CICU and Emily Posa’s (Rosario Dawson) room, the effortless and rapid manner that a loner like Emily becomes attached to Ben and the choice of a character like Connie (Elpidia Carrillo) to put her trust in a stranger like Ben. These, among a number of other pivotal plot details, were too much for me.

Despite my dislike of Seven Pounds, given the material, I did find it to be a well-performed and well-directed movie. Will Smith gave a moving performance, as did Rosario Dawson. Ms. Dawson infused her portrayal of Emily with many layers that helped to compel my attention when my mind might otherwise have wandered, given my frustration with the direction of the story. Woody Harrelson’s depiction of Ezra Turner merits special mention; he conveyed more with few words and a quieter energy than most supporting actors have the restraint to demonstrate.

Unfortunately, that restraint was not shared in most other aspects of the film. In the end, Seven Pounds failed to come to a satisfying conclusion, raising more questions than it answered, but not the kind of thought-provoking, big picture-type questions that might allow you to translate the experience of seeing a movie into a discussion about larger world or life issues. Rather, the questions Seven Pounds left me with were specific script-related questions, which included thoughts like, “Who was Ben to judge other people?”, “Why would Ben have taken what he took from his brother, thereby jeopardizing him professionally?” and “ Who was Dan to Ben and what did he owe him that he would agree to follow Ben’s plan?” Ultimately, the Statement I felt Seven Pounds was trying to make was this: Live and a good life and you will be rewarded; fail to and you will pay. Frankly, I don’t see things as black and white as this, and the movies that most entertain and challenge me occupy the gray spaces. I hope to see more of those this awards season, but for my money, Seven Pounds is not one of them.