Seven Pounds: Movie Review

Will Smith; the person, the name just screams talent in every sense of the word. From television as the fresh prince to music (who can remember "Wild Wild West" or "Will 2K"?) and most importantly, films. The dude just cannot and will not be stopped when it comes to excelling in any genre he wants to pursue. Heck, even in the movie industry he can mold his character to be an action star, to be a comedic wonder or in recent times, a drama king. But we all have to be honest here, Will Smith's last flick was a bewildered mess, a stain in a wonderful film career. "Hancock" even now makes us wonder why Will chose it; were you high Will? Moving forward though, the question now is can Will Smith recover from that utter disappointment called "Hancock" with "Seven Pounds"? The director (Gabrielle Muccino of "The Pursuit of Happyness") is a good start but can the other elements keep up?




The story of "Seven Pounds" revolves around "Ben" Thomas (Will Smith) an IRS agent who for some reason is guilt-ridden and overly-depressed. Thus, due to this, Ben wants to help seven strangers (thus the film is aptly called "Seven Pounds") who all have dire situations may it be natural or not. Along the way, Ben meets one of these strangers, Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson) and inadvertently falls in love. The plot thickens as we discover why Ben is helping these people and what his plans are truly are for the seven chosen ones.

Now we move on to the verdict of "Seven Pounds". The film as a whole was non-remarkable. Nothing special that distinguishes a good film from a great film. Mind you, the acting was really superb. From Will Smith to the other cast, we saw no problems in their performances. But with this in mind, a film is not only salvaged by its actors' and actresses' performances alone. More or less, the plot should be one of the most important aspects of a film and with "Seven Pounds" it was truly flawed. First, why make the plot about seven strangers being helped but only three strangers were given emphasis? Second, the plot development was really convoluted and mixed-up. We were utterly confused for the upper half of the film; guessing what is happening is never really good right? Finally, even though the film had a surprise twist near the end, the overall conclusion was flawed. It really turned us off what he planned to do all along. To make it more simple, Ben's plans goes on the boundaries of morality and ultimately makes the immoral decision. If you are out for tears, "Seven Pounds" might give it to you. Just pay close attention to what is happening or else you will miss a lot and it will leave you utterly lost.

Rating: 2 and a half reels





Why you should watch it:
- Will Smith and the other crew as well was pretty flawless when it comes to their acting skills
- even though the plot was flawed, it will surprise you for sure

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the plot development was somewhat convoluted and confusing most of the time
- the overall plot was basically flawed by its conclusion
- seven strangers were being helped but emphasis was given to only about three strangers, why? Just call it three pounds if that is the case!