EXCERPT FROM SFGATE.COM -- Will Smith is interested in emotional pain now, in the dark side of
American life, in people who are sad or sick or just plain unlucky, and
he's found a partner in the Italian director Gabriele Muccino. The team
collaborated on "Pursuit of Happyness," a 2006 film that told the true
gutter-to-riches story of a brilliant, talented man who still almost
fell through society's cracks. Their new film, "Seven Pounds," is a
spiritual successor to "Pursuit," but darker and more oblique. In fact, the movie is so roundabout and cryptic that it takes half
the running time just to figure out the general nature of what's going
on. "Seven Pounds" makes a mystery of its lead character and of what
he's pursuing, and for a very simple reason: If the movie were to
announce its subject and story in the usual straightforward way, it
would seem so ridiculous, far-fetched and borderline distasteful that
no one would want to watch it. It might even seem funny. So Muccino's task is clear, if difficult - to generate enough magic
and to work up just the right mood so as to cast a spell on viewers.
That way, when the movie's intentions and meaning are finally made
clear, nothing will seem discordant or strange. All will make sense.
For the most part, Muccino accomplishes this precise balance that Grant
Neoporte's screenplay requires. Going in, all we know about Ben (Smith) is that something terrible
has happened in his past, and that he feels responsible for it. That's
all. Everything else we gradually piece together, through a fractured
narrative that jumbles the time sequence. We learn that he is an IRS
agent. Later, we see that he does field audits, but audits of a very
particular and repugnant kind. He seems to specialize in hounding
people for back taxes when they're in the hospital, sometimes with
serious illnesses. There's anger in this guy. In one scene, he talks on the phone to a
food company's customer service representative (Woody Harrelson), and
when he finds out the man is blind, he goes ballistic and starts
taunting him, making withering, demeaning remarks and shouting into the
phone. Obviously, this is not the usual Will Smith, and that difference
is half the appeal of "Seven Pounds," to see a familiar screen presence
show new sides of himself. Smith has made a point of stretching in recent years. Even in the
title role of "Hancock," which was in most ways a routine action movie,
Smith had to build a character different from his usual rambunctious
action persona, tapping into reserves of sorrow and disillusionment.
But he goes much further in "Seven Pounds." His breeziness becomes a
shallow act, and his smile becomes downright eerie, a strained mask
that hides pain, wards off hostility and expresses aggression all at
the same time. It's a smile with dead eyes. Throughout, "Seven Pounds" has a distinct quality. The pensive
score, the subjective cinematography and even the muted aspect of the
featured performances all contribute to a sense of being trapped inside
a waking dream, or nightmare. Ben leads a hollow existence, a death in
life, and the people with whom he comes into contact are the forgotten,
who have dropped out of the world. CONTINUE READING