Saturday, January 3, 2009

7 POUNDS

“7 POUNDS” (Will Smith & Rosario Dawson)

Man, talk about your heavy drama! I’m going to pick on this film a little bit, but over-all I did like it – Although I feel like I should be contacting a suicide hotline for admitting that – this movie is so full of dour circumstances, it’s actually depressing to watch. The biggest flaw is that there is NO HUMOR WHATSOEVER. We went from this film to ‘Doubt’ & the latter was a much better movie because, even though it was a ‘touchy subject’ drama as well, it would occasionally lighten things up with a dose of humor. ‘7 Pounds’ is weighed down with dying, or handicapped characters & a seemingly constantly miserable lead character (Will Smith’s Ben Thomas) The one pleasant scene occurs near the end of the film, & because of how it finishes, the lone happy moment doesn’t make sense. Again, it is not a bad movie, it held my interest throughout despite the overall morose feeling it conveyed, thanks mainly to the mysterious air that surrounded Ben; I felt the same as I did viewing the preview – I wonder what this story is all about? The film keeps you in suspense the same way the trailer did.
Here’s the set-up; Ben Thomas works for the IRS – he is seen paying personal visits to citizens that owe the American government sizable amounts of money. His goal seems to be that he’s trying to locate someone worthy of ‘giving them a break’. His first ‘client’ (the manager of an assisted living facility) fails. Ben is then seen on the phone with Woody Harrelson’s blind telemarketer (Ezra) who is trying to sell ‘beef’ by phone. Ben discovers Ezra’s handicapped & heartlessly begins to make fun of him for being a ‘blind beef salesman’ who happens to be a vegetarian.
Eventually Ben meets Emily (Rosario Dawson) a woman with an over-sized heart that’s failing on her – she is given a month to 6 weeks left to live unless a donor heart can be found to transplant.
After an awkward first meeting (Announcing you’re an IRS agent isn’t the best way to endear yourself to someone, is it?) Ben & Emily become friends; it also becomes clear that Emily is ‘falling’ for Ben & he doesn’t seem too keen on the idea, though he keeps showing up at her doorstep & helping her in any way he can.
Ben’s best friend, Dan (played by the under-rated Barry Pepper) is the only person who is in on Ben’s secret, & it is something that is obviously upsetting the man. Ben’s brother keeps calling him & appears to be upset with his older brother for some reason.
Through flashbacks we see that Ben was married at one time & the couple was, as far as the flashbacks reveal, madly in love with one another.
When Ben’s secret plan is finally played out, we discover the answers to most of the mysterious questions, with one main exception – Why the hell is this movie called ‘7 Pounds’? My wife had a couple of suggestions, which I won’t reveal here as it would give away too much of the mystery – but if anyone who reads this knows the answer, I’d very much appreciate you leaving me the information in the comments section.
A very powerful drama that I would have thought with the ‘Fresh Prince’ at the helm should have known to ‘lighten up’ with just a couple of smirk inducing lines!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is just me, but I think it has to do something about the human heart, in that the average weight of the human heart is 7 lbs. But it could have something to do with the 7 people he wanted to help. ???
Good conversation piece if anything.
I didn't really like the movie because it's not a fantasy genre type of film say like I Am Legend was, but if Ben was to go about his goals, it's purely fantasy. Could never happen.
I don't think the story was believable because of that.
Opinions always vary.

Anonymous said...

Excellent point, those are usually the type of observations I make & the kind of 'errors' that ruin a film for me - but that never dawned on me while I was watching the film - Perhaps because you knew what Ben's goal was before you saw the film, that made you more aware of what he was up to, whereas I didn't have a clue. I guess I was too caught up in the mysterious way the story was told to wonder if it all made sense or not. For the '7 Lbs' explanations -my wife thought the weight of a human heart might be it - her second thought was 'a pound of flesh for each of the 7 people that were killed in the automobile accident'. I'm with you on "I Am Legend" - another favorite of mine that critics panned - but at least in '7 Lbs.' the dog didn't die!