Seven Pounds (15.)
Directed by Gabrielle Muccino.
Starring Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper, Michael Ealy. 125 mins
It’s called Seven Pounds but it feels heavier. The film reunites Smith with the director of The Pursuit of Happyness and together they seem to forging a new brand movie making that could be called steely mush. Muccino deals in emotions and sentimentality, things that always make reviewers uneasy, but in his hands these never seem like the easy get outs they usually are at the movies. Seven Pounds looks slick but feels raw.
The curse of movie going today is that by the time a movie has made it to the screen it’s been trailered and previewed to death, a pre-consumption that takes all the juice out of it. Seven Pounds is a film that is almost impossible to trail or précis. Even the title can’t be explained.
Going in I was given a statement respectfully requesting that I don’t reveal too much of the plot (not realising that I am always too concerned with bombarding you with my opinion to ever sully this page with mere actualities.) So all I can say is that Smith is a taxman who does good deeds and that the film entails a narrative so fractured it could be Nicholas Roeg film, slowly piecing together different time frames to reveal the story.
Smith has to play someone bearing a weight of agony and I’d say he’s rather good. Some will make the case that he overdoes it, puts on the puppy dog eyes too much and that may be true but there’s something instinctual about Smith, it feels like he giving you an emotional response that he worked out all for himself rather than the stock responses taught at acting class.
Muccino and French cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd make the film look beautiful, all glittering vibrant surfaces that both capture the sense of life and Thomas’s detachment from them.
Smith has enjoyed an almost unprecedented run of success. He’s probably the first actor since 80s/90s Tom Cruise who can get audiences into see anything he’s in. (Sony are trying to recreate the Jerry Maguire trick of just putting the star’s face on the poster without any further explanation.) This could be the one that breaks the run – there'd be enough disease, death, and misery to alienate audiences even if the film had a straightforward narrative. But alternatively it might just capture an audience that want something with real heart.
Directed by Gabrielle Muccino.
Starring Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper, Michael Ealy. 125 mins
It’s called Seven Pounds but it feels heavier. The film reunites Smith with the director of The Pursuit of Happyness and together they seem to forging a new brand movie making that could be called steely mush. Muccino deals in emotions and sentimentality, things that always make reviewers uneasy, but in his hands these never seem like the easy get outs they usually are at the movies. Seven Pounds looks slick but feels raw.
The curse of movie going today is that by the time a movie has made it to the screen it’s been trailered and previewed to death, a pre-consumption that takes all the juice out of it. Seven Pounds is a film that is almost impossible to trail or précis. Even the title can’t be explained.
Going in I was given a statement respectfully requesting that I don’t reveal too much of the plot (not realising that I am always too concerned with bombarding you with my opinion to ever sully this page with mere actualities.) So all I can say is that Smith is a taxman who does good deeds and that the film entails a narrative so fractured it could be Nicholas Roeg film, slowly piecing together different time frames to reveal the story.
Smith has to play someone bearing a weight of agony and I’d say he’s rather good. Some will make the case that he overdoes it, puts on the puppy dog eyes too much and that may be true but there’s something instinctual about Smith, it feels like he giving you an emotional response that he worked out all for himself rather than the stock responses taught at acting class.
Muccino and French cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd make the film look beautiful, all glittering vibrant surfaces that both capture the sense of life and Thomas’s detachment from them.
Smith has enjoyed an almost unprecedented run of success. He’s probably the first actor since 80s/90s Tom Cruise who can get audiences into see anything he’s in. (Sony are trying to recreate the Jerry Maguire trick of just putting the star’s face on the poster without any further explanation.) This could be the one that breaks the run – there'd be enough disease, death, and misery to alienate audiences even if the film had a straightforward narrative. But alternatively it might just capture an audience that want something with real heart.
