I Need a Nap

Seven Pounds Review

This movie’s promotion, and some of the negative reviews it has received, suggest a pretty exciting movie.

A number of critics review basically say they can’t talk much about the plot without ruining it.

Which is true. The thing is that gives off the impression there are huge twists in the movie.

That would be false. It’s just that the twists are layered in such a way as to make a plot synopsis problematic.

So let’s start with a….

Non-Spoiler Review

Seven Pounds has Will Smith playing what seems to be some sort of IRS agent, investigating people to see if they are nice or not and giving them some sort of help.

He falls in love with a nice woman with a giant dog (Rosario Dawson) who happens to need a heart transplant.

Also there is some suggestion that something bad happened in Smith’s character’s past.

What follows is mostly a pretty mellow drama. Smith and Dawson have a very winning and believable romance, which is complicated by Smith’s character’s (there’s a reason I’m not saying his name) perpetual sadness.

The guy seems to be planning something, but what it is isn’t totally clear.

Eventually we get it all, and things make sense.

But Seven Pounds payoff isn’t nearly as bad as it seems like it should be, at least in terms of fueling this monumental guilt the main character clearly feels.

The “twists” are not really that twisty, and certainly aren’t shocking.

Most of the actors do fine, as always Will Smith is an unstoppable force of charisma, even playing a very sad and haunted character. He very nearly sells this movie, and probably would have, if the film didn’t drag horribly through the second act.

There are a lot of simple, quiet scenes, and the mystery behind Smith’s character is not enough to carry interest through.

And because the finale is not that surprising, it really is just more painful and sad to watch than really moving or tragically grand.

Smith has taken on another really interesting project (much like Hancock and I am Legend) that starts off strong and peters out. But this film is substantially less gripping than both of those films I just mentioned.

You’ll just get exhausted and sad.

Spoiler Review

Texting? Seriously?

Obviously you can understand this guy would be distraught over this accident, but he clearly blames himself. I mean this has got to be the strongest anti-texting while driving movie ever.

With the set-up, you get the feeling he must have been drunk, high, and blindfolded when he was driving that car.

A lot of people text and drive. You, reading this right now, might be someone who does. It is not a good thing to do, no doubt about it, but for him to feel so responsible, it really would have paid off stronger emotionally if his mistake were a bigger and more condemnable one.

Take The Lookout for example. The main character in that film was DEFINITELY totally at fault. He literally turned off the lights of his car and drove in the night. This also related to his character, the guy thought he was untouchable, obviously he was wrong. In Seven Pounds you could say maybe Smith’s character was too attached to his work (the text had to do with work, I believe) but that’s not as strong of a character note.

The movie frankly just drags. The trailer made it look like a thriller, which is totally the wrong expectation to go into this movie with. It’s a drama, and a fairly slow-paced one at that.

It looks great, kudos to director Gabriele Muccino on that, but writer Grant Nieporte needed to layer in more mystery throughout, as well as more conflict, to keep the viewer’s attention.

Will Smith is such a good actor, and the finale is certainly sad, but this movie just does not payoff as a great tragedy should. It will be very interesting to see if Smith can milk a hit out of this one.

Randomly goofy part of the movie

The gigantic dog Rosario Dawson’s character has looks positively silly sitting around during tender romantic scenes, almost as big as the actors next to it.

Giving the most natural and effective performance I’ve ever seen her do

Is Rosario Dawson, who I’ve seen really perform an affected, “acting”, that doesn’t play real in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and The 25th Hour. She is totally believable and natural in this movie.

-Dan Benamor