Seven Pounds

*Spoilers!*

I went to see Seven Pounds today. I was disappointed. I didn't read that much about this one beforehand, I'd seen previews and the few things I had read seemed to imply that it was sort of a cool movie, that there were plot twists, and that the whole story wasn't really revealed until the end.

Will Smith plays a man who has done something terrible, something that haunts him, and has turned him into this meek, lonely, sad, somewhat suicidal guy. The problem is that although you get to like him more over the course of the movie, in the beginning he just seems sort of like an oddjob guy who comes off a little creepy at times. He looks like he's pained most of the time, and on the verge of tears.

It becomes clear over the course of the movie that Smith's character is hunting down people who need help, with the intentions to help them. It is almost immediately revealed that he did something bad at some point that he feels immensely guilty about, and want to somehow try to make up for.

So... I agree that the whole story wasn't revealed until the end. Unless you're smart. And watch a significant number of movies. I figured out probably half an hour in that Smith's character was planning to off himself so that he could donate certain body parts to people in need. I figured out shortly thereafter that he was probably going to use his super poisonous pet jellyfish to do the deed.

Having figured those things out, I found the whole romance between he and Rosario Dawson's character sort of... pointless. I mean, he fell in love with her, but the entire time he was planning to kill himself to save her. So, what was the point really? A moment of happiness before death? The fact that he would die for her even more willingly because he loved her? I don't know.

I will say that one thing that WAS good about the movie was Rosario Dawson. Her character, who is dying of congestive heart failure, is cute, likeable, and believable. She's a beautiful actress, and she fit the roll wonderfully.

Basically, it wasn't terrible. But it wasn't great. For what I was EXPECTING to see in the theater, I was disappointed. Perhaps part of my problem was that the story was pretty unbelievable. I can see a man spiralling into a depression after what happened (a terrible car accident caused by Smith's character that killed 7 people, including his fiance). But posing as an IRS agent to help people and actually making things happen - giving away a kidney, part of a liver, a lung, and a house? Falling in love and then killing yourself and giving your heart to that woman? It's just a little hard to swallow.