Seven Pounds movie review
The new Will smith movie, Seven Pounds, is something that you might not expect during the Christmas Season: an honestly powerful and moving movie experience. Smith has taken a step away from his more familiar routine of playing the relaxed and amiable character. Instead here he portrays a man with a more exposed and imperfect air of humanity.
To be honest, recently Smith has chosen a seeries of roles that have relied as much on gimmickry and contrived sentimentality as they have sincere character development. With Seven Pounds Smith is challenging his audience to accept an intense and provocative movie experience around the time of year when many would rather just be losing themselves in escapist entertainment.
At its core, Seven Pounds is really about the inherent goodness in humanity and the personal crusade of one individual, an IRS agent named Ben Thomas (Smith) who is determined to reward the goodness of seven troubled strangers. Smith portrays the character as a good samaritan who gets himself involved in the lives of these seven people. Again these people all appear to be decent individuals who happen to each be going through troubling times or suffering with serious problems.
Remember however that this is no Frank Capra kind of feel good movie.
It might surprise some that this movie even made it to the screen with this screenplay, especially considering that it was a first time project for writer Grant Nieporte who is more well known for his work in television. this is a powerful script however and that must have been realized by someone at the higher levels in Hollywood. This script has integrity and is very clever. Nieporte succeeds in avoiding the easier route of over-sentimentality and presents the viewer with a challenging and demanding story.
Seve Pounds director, Gabriele Muccino, also directed smith in The Pursuit of Happyness and may surprise some by not giving in to sentimentality here which is something that he has been accused of doing in the past with such works as Happyness.
Rosario Dawson also comes through with a convincing and honest performance as one of the troubled individuals in Ben Thomas's life. There is a pleasing chemistry at work here between Dawson and Smith. Woody Harrelson and Barry Pepper also contribute to the strength of this film with their proven acting skills on display here. Both succeed in adding more personality to the tortured drama.
I will resisit the urge to give away the ending of the Seven Pounds movie. When you watch this movie you can't help but get the feeling that this is a very personal project for both the star Smith and the director Muccino - that this is the movie that they both intended to make at the outset; it definitely does not come across as a strictly commercial studio venture. All in all, Seven Pounds succeeds in providing the audience with a challenging and thought-provoking moviegoing experience.
****
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