Seven Pounds

When I first saw the trailer for Seven pounds I was hugely excited, I am a big fan of Mr. Smith and have loved the direction his acting has been going in. I fell in love with his performance in The Pursuit of Happyness and as Seven Pounds was being billed as a similarly role and performance it hit my must see list. However time went on, other films got in the way and there seemed to be very little hype surrounding this film, whether that is down to people opinions or just a lack of promoting this side of the pond it is hard to tell. 

So I finally got a chance to see it this week as a number of my usual companions were out of the fray and we are generally quite well caught up on our list of "to sees". So myself and my friend Ian headed off to make the most of the popular two for one deal a certain mobile phone company offers. 

Chocolate and drink in hand I was all set for a good piece of cinema and possible a bit of a cry. The film is difficult to review as I don't want to give away too many twists for those of you who are yet to see it. As trailers suggest the film is quite mysterious, you spend a huge amount of time wondering about the background of the main character, Ben, played by Smith. The beginning of the film cuts between scenes quickly and often in a jarring manner, it leaves the viewer feeling a little uncomfortable and unsettled, though you are aware this is a deliberate move by the film makers. You do however learn a few things, Ben is an IRS agent, though he hasn't always been. You also met a few of the supporting characters, though you often have no idea what Ben, relationship to them is, or why he has a relationship with them. You do however very quickly get the feeling that all is not as it seems. 

The story begins to settle down when Ben meets Emily, played by Rosario Dawson. Ben's face to face dealings with Emily are, to start with, in the capacity of Ben's job. However from the very beginning the audience is made aware that Ben's actions are by no means orthodox, and possibly not entirely confined to the realms of tax auditing, and a fairly inevitable love story plays out as the pair grown closer. The films conclusion is dramatic and full details are not disclosed until the dying moments of the film, however I was certainly not as surprised as I would imagine the film makers intended me to be, more worryingly however I didn't care as much as I hoped I would. 

This film has a lot of strong points, the cinematography and artistic directions is stunning, the acting is sublime, the score is beautiful and the word play between characters engaging. The writers, actors and directors have not been afraid to make the audience uncomfortable, but not cringe worthily so. The film is balanced and measured, with a exquisitely managed tempo and some hauntingly beautiful scenes. Having said this however there is one major failing, which left me hugely disappointed. The cloak and dagger techniques of not revealing certain parts of Ben'slife story to the audience leave you unable to fully connect with his character, and they give you nothing to make up for this fundamental failing. Not feeling in touch with who Ben is left me utterly underwhelmed as the story played itself out. I desperately wanted to sob into my popcorn, but the story had just never hooked me in enough to make me care that much. 

I am sure that anyone who sees this film will take something away from it, it has some touching and beautiful sentiments and is certainly a clever story in many ways. However that is also it's down fall, it is too clever to really have any heart. Given that heart is the crux of the story all of the brains in the world were never going to save this film.