Seven Pounds is a powerful, mysterious film, slow to reveal itself, but engaging all the way. In the opening minutes, we hear Will Smith’s character make a 911 call reporting a suicide – his own – before flashing back to a series of seemingly random, inconsistent, disconnected actions. He tells us that he has shattered his life, and we see he is troubled and hurt. A few dream sequences hint at the source of his demise, but we spend the bulk of the next two hours trying to figure out both what it was that shattered his life, and how it affects his resulting actions.
The worst thing I can say about the movie? The camera loves Wills Smith’s face too much. Whether showing his you-can-trust-me-I’m-a-good-guy smile, or his I’m-in-pain-but-a-good-guy-can-bear-it grimace, the movie attempts to tell too much of the story through the emotions playing on his face. Nothing wrong with the guy’s face, but there are other ways to express feeling and move the plot along. As a result, there seems to be some disconnect between the slick, MIT-educated aerospace engineer Smith and the wooden, Forest Gump-awkward Smith who becomes as an IRS agent looking for good people.
Because I heard several people talking about the title after the movie who totally missed it, I’ll give you some of the background. A “pound of flesh” is what Shylock, the money lender in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice requests and receives as surety for a loan he makes to the merchant Antonio. When the loan cannot be repaid, Shylock, who has been hurt and insulted by Antonio, insists upon literal fulfillment of the terms of the contract.
Nowadays, someone who insists upon having his “pound of flesh” cruelly demands the repayment of a debt, no matter how much suffering it will bring the debtor. In Seven Pounds, the main character is both debtor and debt collector, deadbeat and loan shark. And unlike those involved in the recent sub-prime credit collapse, he means to both pay and collect.
It isn’t until the final five minutes of the film that the whole thing comes together. Now, personally, I like stories that are told from the beginning, but I suppose that art is imitating life here – the only story we know from the beginning is our own, and everything else we ‘know’ is pieced together from what we see and hear as we go along. My worry here is that too many people will hear about the film and skip seeing it, thinking they have enough of those pieces to understand the conclusion. In the Internet Age, it’s pretty risky for a studio to think that early audiences won’t blab the conclusion.
What challenges does the movie present? It raises some powerful questions, questions that get to the core of our humanity: “Do you consider yourself a good person?” “How do you tell if someone is a good person?” ” What would be the impact of a life lived for the benefit of others?” ” How far would you go to atone for a mistake you made?” And, “What does it mean to love someone?”
“Greater love has no one than this…” If the raw emotion of this movie doesn’t kill you, it might make you a better person.
Rating: 
I had low expectations for this movie but it really blew my mind. Great movie for holidays.
I’ve only seen the trailer for this one – last night in fact at the cinema. It interested me, but I’ll still want to find out more before I go to see it. I like happy endings! Sorry if that makes me a saddo.
I hope the review makes it seem like its worth watching – I think it was! The ending is one where you will have to decide for yourself it is a happy one or not – you could take it a couple of different ways.
slow. plodding. tedious. not funny at all. the funniest thing in the whole movie was the vegetarian great dane. i know will smith wants to be a “serious” actor but come on. he’s becoming unrelentingly grim. it’s time for him to break it up a little and find his funny bone again. i’d give the best actor award in this dog to the dog.
It wasn’t suppposed to be funny, you seem narrow-minded to think that an actor should have to keep with one type of acting style. Will Smith has proven time and time again that he can play both. As far of finding his funny bone again? I found Hancock to be more funny of a film than serious although it was somewhat mixed. The last 8 films before this one he starred in grossed over $200 million so I think it’s pretty safe to say he can do whatever the hell he wants.
for now.
remember kevin “who?” costner ?
I watched this movie last night with my 16-year-old daughter. It was a very entertaining and thoughtful movie – as long as you did not have a Christian worldview. I was very sad after watching it. Will Smith’s character plays a very sad yet noble man. My daughter cried during the movie. I did not. I could have because it was very tender and well done, yet because of my worldview centered in the Fathers will for His people, I could not cry.
After the movie, my daughter became very angry with me because I told her why I did not cry. First of all, as many other people have written – suicide is simply wrong. It is a coward’s way out and I am appalled that Hollywood would make it seem noble.
But the other reason I was sad is that there was no mention what-so-ever about life after death. How can we talk about death without God? When in our society have we gone to such a low? At least in the past, even though we have excluded God from our lives, most movies and real people think/talk about Him when dying. This movie did not even hint at it. And what a great opportunity it had in the redemption story – to redeem souls, not just temporary bodies! These bodies are nothing but a shell! Oh, that my daughter and others could see that!
And of course, although Will Smith’s character is trying so hard to redeem himself of the pain he has caused so many, there is a very good chance that he will have to suffer pain for eternity because of his life lived without Christ. What a shame.
Thank you for listening to my thoughts. God bless you!
Thanks for writing, and engaging so deeply with the themes fo the movie.
Personally, I thought the movie treated the suicide pretty ambivalently – neither fully endorsing or condemning. As a viewer, I was hoping he would find a way out, but knew that the story probably wasn’t going to go that way. A christian would say that no one is excluded from the gift of God’s grace, that no one has done anything that can’t be forgiven by God, but Will Smith’s character deftly portrayed someone haunted by his failure to live up to his own standard, someone who felt outside the possibility of forgiveness.
If nothing else, I am glad that the experience of sharing this movie with you daughter. I’m glad for her sake that she can hear from someone she loves and trusts about an important issue that the movie leads up to but doesn’t directly address – the possibility of life after death. I can’t think of a better reason to take your kids to the movies.
Very well said, Ray!