Seven Pounds (2008)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  8 / 10

  Seven Pounds may have just broken me as a human being. It is extremely rare for a film to get me emotional, I am essentially dead inside. Yet here I am, alone in my house, wiping a few tears away as I say out loud "pull yourself together!". To describe the plot would be doing it an injustice, but essentially a man contacts seven strangers in an attempt to turn their lives around. This raises the fundamental question: why? Now that would be a spoiler. Now I'm not tearing up just because it's a beautiful heartfelt drama, no no. I'm emotional because it just goes to show that performing acts of kindness can really make a difference in someone's life. We now live in a world where we keep ourselves distant from others. Isolated. Solitude. But what if you went outside and decided to help someone, even if it was just a stranger. The little difference you could make to their lives may just change your own. Seven Pounds eloquently explores that, perhaps slightly too melodramatically but it was required to make its purpose apparent. The extremities that our protagonist goes through to help others is rather inspiring. As the plot thickens, we soon start to unravel why he is doing this...and it's utterly heartbreaking. The last twenty minutes...damn. Just damn. It got to me. For that reason alone, I will remember this film for many years to come. This is undoubtedly one of Will Smith's best performances. Nuanced, understated and emotionally complex, he was able to evoke a sense of morality and innocence that we should all pursue in our own lives. Not to the extremities that his character undergoes, but kindness is a powerful trait to acquire. The supporting cast were excellent also. Big fan of Rosario Dawson who pulled in a beautiful performance. Woody Harrelson was good, would've liked to have seen more interaction with him. Direction solid, musical score hard hitting, wonderful cinematography...I could go on. To say Seven Pounds is a "nice" film is wrong. It's more than that and deserves far more attention, albeit slightly too melodramatic.

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