I'm not usually a big fan of Will Smith - he's insufferably smug to my mind - but I was impressed by his performance in Ali and intrigued by the sound of Seven Pounds. Smith plays Ben Thomas, a man with a secret which plagues him with guilt and compels him to embark upon a mission of martyrdom, with the aim of absolving himself and helping seven strangers into the bargain - a mission which is predicated on his eventual death.
Miserable and dark, huh? You'd think such a story would be a great - if bleak - premise for a movie. We discover Ben's motive by degrees, through a series of increasingly unnecessary flashbacks which could be cut by half on the basis that anyone with a reasonable level of intelligence can deduce what's happened/going to happen. The manner of Ben's suicide is also ridiculous - death by jellyfish anyone?! It doesn't really fit with the otherwise sombre tone does it? In spite of this, a weak script and predictable plot, the actors actually managed to move me - incredible, you would say, given my aversion to the far too pleased with himself Mr Smith. Perhaps I took some perverse pleasure from the fact he looked constipated throughout? Aside from his 'moody' performance, I also thought Rosario Dawson was affecting as a woman with a congenital heart defect who is the recipient of Ben's kindness in more ways than one. Ooh - whilst on the subject of the performers, look out for the cameo from Tom Cruise's son Connor, who plays a young version of Smith's character.
But let's return to the facts, which are these: this is a bloated movie which fails to make the most of its actors or a potentially harrowing storyline. Sadly, the most harrowing thing about this movie was its duration: no amount of emoting could compensate for this, which at a whopping two hours is far too much melodrama and misery for anyone. A movie which thinks it's more profound than it actually is.
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