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Movies released from the end of november through to the new year tend to be Oscar-worthy films, or at worst safe, much loved blockbusters - think Harry Potter. So when Seven Pounds released on December 19th it promised to be a good choice. Add in the reunion of the star (Will Smith) and director (Gabriele Muccino) of The Pursuit of Happyness, and it seemed that nothing could go wrong. Unfortunately, things are not always as they seem.

 Will Smith plays Ben Thomas, a mysterious IRS agent who seems to be on a mission to find good people, for a purpose which is the central plot point, and the central mystery, of the movie. As the movie goes on we note certain similarities among the characters, and slowly begin to guess at Thomas’ purpose. Surprisingly, Smith’s acting is one of the few upsides of the movie. He mostly manages to hit a good balance between the emotion of each scene and Thomas’ constant internal turmoil, and creates a realistic and interesting portrait of a man.

That is, until the plot ruins it. The movie begins in the middle of the action, which makes for a very confusing beginning that is rewarded only by a continual stream of anticlimactic and cheesy discoveries. Even worse, a few of the initial scenes, such as his conversation with Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson) seem to have been put in for no reason but to build suspense, and don’t really fit into their context. The whole film is a big mystery which unravels to a conclusion that is obvious half way through, and has no hidden twists or meanings to reward the audience.

Because the screenplay is so engrossed in building a mystery, it doesn’t pay enough attention to anything else. There is no character development, and the relationships that are built or shown during the film are weak at best and Hollywood catering at worst - especially his relationship with Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), which makes absolutely no sense considering the film’s back story. Although the movie was probably intended to be a meditation on what it means to be a good person, its own insistence on dividing characters along strict and stereotypical lines, as well as Thomas’ unwavering judgement of himself ruin the effect. And then there is his chosen method of atonement, which was probably supposed to be morally ambiguous but ends up being simply disturbing - and not in a good way.

In the end, the movie is a poorly thought out, unnecessary mystery that tries to be both thought provoking and a blockbuster, and fails at doing both. I would give it two stars at most.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.