Will Smith Movie Seven Pounds Disappoints: Rosario Dawson & Will Smith Love Scenes are Long and Indulgent

Seven Pounds has a predecessor in El Maquinista (The Machinist), a 2004 film starring Christian Bale. Screenwriter Grant Nieporte takes this storyline further with character Ben Thomas. Will Smith plays Ben, the high-flying aeronautics professional who decides to donate seven organs, to appease his guilt for having caused seven deaths on the road.

Genre Confusion

Noble as this story may be, Gabriele Muccino’s direction and Nieporte’s screenplay fail, as they reduce this compelling idea into long, draggy scenes that confuse the audience as to which genre it belongs. Genre-wise, Seven Pounds falls into three parts: first – it looks like a horror or paranormal exploration; second - boy meets girl love story; third – a social cause movie about redemption. The problem is Seven Pounds’ genre only becomes clear too late, testing the audience’s patience for most part of the movie.

Draggy Direction Drowns Will Smith

Will Smith pulls a long face in most of his exposition scenes, which is a shame, as there is high energy and suspense in his scenes with Ezra (Woody Harrelson) and at the nursing home. The phone conversation with Ezra is one of the best scenes in Seven Pounds. Woody Harrelson plays the blind Ezra beautifully, especially when he is verbally abused by Ben. The audience realises early on that Ben Thomas is not happy, but this melancholy is carried too far. Even in tragedies like The Green Mile or Philadelphia (Tom Hanks does a lot of redemption type movies), the actors show fire and spirit, not dreariness. When a character fights against the pain, a better, more watchable dynamic comes about. In Seven Pounds however, Ben Thomas is allowed to be sad once too often.

Flabby Scenes for Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson plays Emily Posa, the long-suffering patient whom Ben decides to donate his heart to. Luckily Dawson plays Emily light and cheerful, even attractive. But here, director Gabriele Muccino seems to go flabby on the editing and indulge Ben and Emily’s romance, with camera lingering on Dawson and Smith conversing and caressing, as if their love story was the focus of the whole film. Audiences start to lose track of the earlier dynamic scenes and wonder what Seven Pounds really is about. Again, the redemptive value of this story is lost, as Emily Posa is young and attractive, which makes Ben’s choice less difficult. It is hard to believe Emily cannot run as she pleases, as Rosario Dawson’s figure is very athletic, looking somewhat similar to Angelina Jolie!

Suspense can Be Increased

The audience is touched by the love between Ben and Emily, and Dawson’s earnestness makes the scenes moving. But the transition from Ben as a bogus Inland Revenue man to this love story may be stronger if Ben’s false identity was called into question more often. The resulting suspense could be as terrifying as The Machinist, where horror helped the audience identify with the protagonist’s guilt. By raising the stakes during long love scenes, audiences would be more concerned with asking: who really is Ben Thomas, good or bad? That, simply, is the crucial question in Seven Pounds.

Angelo Milli Soundtrack

The movie is not helped by the slow and depressing soundtrack, especially the repetitive double piano notes when Emily Posa and Ben Thomas fall in love. There are memorable moments in Charles Aznavour’s For Me Formidable and Muse’s version of Feeling Good, but mostly the music enforces the heaviness of the movie, rather than lightens it.

Is Seven Pounds the movie worth seven pounds the cinema ticket? Many would find this a debatable question.

The copyright of the article Will Smith Movie Seven Pounds Disappoints in Film Dramas is owned by Lynette S.K. Webster. Permission to republish Will Smith Movie Seven Pounds Disappoints in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Feb 7, 2009 5:19 PM

Guest :

Ok what are the seven organs he donated & what is meant by the the POUNDS - money, weight, dog? Not clear - to me anyway.

Feb 8, 2009 4:14 AM

Lynette S.K. Webster :

In the movie, Will Smith's character Ben donates seven organs, namely: heart, corneas, bone marrow, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas. In Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice", Shylock demanded a "pound of flesh" as a debt repayment from Antonio. As the weight of the heart is about 10-12 ounces, this movie title would not have come from the weight of one organ, but most likely refers to the seven organs, therefore "Seven Pounds" of flesh. The movie title was not clearly explained in the movie either, resulting in some long debates on IMDB.

Mar 9, 2009 5:57 AM

Guest :

i politely disagree with this review. i think the movie was brilliant. smith's character was realistic..not all of us would "fight against the pain," and his character's actions spoke to the general population. the fact that a lot of things seemed "confusing" or unrevealed simply made the audience THINK. we were constantly making predictions and reworking them and being introduced to new characters and new ideas and new plotlines. it was up to us to try to piece it together before the end revelation. does it need to have a clear cut genre to be a good movie? i don't think so. the soundtrack was an important part in setting the mood. the soundtrack should not lighten the story, because it IS a heavy story. i agree that the audience should identify with ben thomas' guilt, asking themselves if he is "good" or "bad," but i like that the film doesn't spell it out for you. again, it pushes the audience to think deeper about the film and the characters. i think too many movie watchers are a bit lazy and want to be directly told every single thing about the movie. anyway, i think the movie was unforgettable and definitely a movie that is impossible to see without talking about it afterward.