At The Movies: Seven Pounds

Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper, Woody Harrelson

Directed by: Gabriele Muccino (Pursuit of Happyness)

Curiousity can do a lot of crazy things to a person. It can make them ask rather silly questions, swallow their pride, go beyond their limits, or even take particular risk. What does Seven Pounds do with our curiousity? It wastes our time.

The marketing campaigns for this movie was quite stupid…err…smart. The plot wasn’t let out and rightfully so; the movie is one big mystery. What I can tell you is the Will Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a huge secret that he wants to cope with and account for. So he uses his position to “audit” people that he essentially wants to help. The first 20 seconds is him sending out a call to 911 for his own suicide (relax, it’s not a spoiler) and from there, the next 119 minutes is how he got to that point and its aftermath.

A big chunk of the mystery is gone about 30 minutes in (if you are an attentive and smart enough viewer), but you keep paying attention because you are waiting for either a huge spin, a huge cry, or a huge zombie to come out of no where to turn this into I Am Legend 2. Director Gabriele Muccino, at least had a connection with the audience in Pursuit of Happyness, and one that evoked plenty of sympathy, sadness, and hope. While that film was nothing to write home about, it was certainly a lot more introspective and mysterious than this mystery was…and Pursuit was based on a true story that was told to millions.

Will Smith is not good in this. Plain and simple. I’m sorry to all of you Smitty fans, but his acting ranges to split seconds of anger to a pause to a tear drop to a reflection moment. It’s the same cycle throughout. If one actor does benefit from this movie, it is Rosario Dawson, who plays an ailing cardiac arrest patient. This shouldn’t be a surprise, however, she’s amazing in anything she does because of how genuine she is on screen. If the audience does and should care about one character in this movie, it is hers.

Seven Pounds will have to rely heavily on its vague marketing for people to see this movie because there really isn’t much else to bank on. The performances, aside from one, are not impressive, the character development of the main character is nonexistent, the secondary characters are useless, and the mystery/twist/big moment is nothing that you can’t get from staying at home watching an episode of 24. If you want to know the meaning of the title, email me, I’ll tell you. Seriously.

38/100