The movie starts off with Ben Thomas(Will Smith) making a 911 call to announce his suicide. While we are hooked, the movie explores the life of Ben Thomas.
Ben makes a nasty call to a blind meat salesman, Ezra Turner(Woody Harrelson). He keeps a tab on a junior hockey coach and a young boy. Ben has conversations with his brother. At another time, Ben also accuses the owner of a nursing home to be bad man and becomes almost physically abusive with him. All of a sudden, Ben checks into a motel and meets with his long time friend, Dan(Barry Pepper). During the ensuing conversation with Dan, Ben reminds him of the agreement between them.
He introduces himself as an IRS agent to Emily Posa(Rosario Dawson). Since Emily suffers a congenital heart disease, he helps her out with her tax problem. When Emily gets attracted to Ben and asks about his past, Ben resists.
The movie unravels to show who Ben Thomas is and what his grand scheme of things are.
Gabriele Muccino directs this drama, his second outing with Will Smith after “The Pursuit of Happyness”. Like the earlier movie, he narrates the extraordinary story of an ordinary person. He uses non-linear narrative to tell the story, giving the movie an abstract feeling in the beginning. Towards the end, the viewers has to piece the big picture together thereby making the viewers to put on their thinking hats longer than the duration of the movie.
Will Smith is excellent depicting a man coping with loss, filled with remorse and repentance. He puts on a brave face for the world while he is breaking up every day every hour. Will makes us sympathize with the character.
The event unfolds on a slow pace. So this is an ideal weekend watch. Make sure you don’t have any distracting interruptions in between.
Tags: Movies,Seven Pounds,Will Smith,Woody Harrelson,Barry Pepper,Rosario Dawson,Gabriele Muccino,The Pursuit of Happyness
I saw this movie on a long 6 hour flight from Adis Ababa to Dakar on an ethiopian airlines recently and somewhow the movie left a bad taste in my mouth or was it the food they served on that flight (on second thgoughts?)
ReplyDelete@Vaz
ReplyDeleteThey are many who shares your sentiments about the movie. I liked it mainly for non-linear narration which also adds to the confusion initially. The hockey coach episode is a flashback. But you don't realize it until long after the movie is over!