Seven Pounds: A Brief Review

I have done a few movie reviews on the blog, but all of them have been explicitly Christian films. I don't know why I write on this particular film other than needing a catharsis for a lot of pent-up anxiety the film produced. The movie stars Will Smith, and having been a fan of his for over a decade, I ordered the movie from Netflix to watch without even knowing what the film was really about. However, that is the selling point of the film; you don't know what the film is about until the end. That aspect of the film grew really tired on me after all the inexplicable scenes and not knowing whether they were flashbacks or real time, why he was acting like such a jerk in some scenes, and the continual look of pain and hardened sorrow on his face.

You are filled in bit by bit, as a fisherman allows line for a caught fish he does not want to lose. Smith is dealing with profound grief. Overcome by an accident he caused and the loss of many lives, Smith puts an elaborate plan in motion to essentially "redeem" himself for all the pain he has caused so many people. The main premise being unoriginal, I have come to expect a lot better from Smith in his tenured acting career.

Seven Pounds does portray grief in its rawest form and though Smith takes measures that in the world's mind probably seem quite noble, I have a hard time stomaching the carrying out of his plan. It was inevitable halfway through the movie what he was doing, and by the end, though I could imagine there were several tearful eyes in the theaters, I was just glad it was over.