Four out of Five Stars

I will warn here that in trying to review this movie I may accidentatlly reveal spoilers about the contents of the film. Thats one of the aspects of the movie, its very difficult to describe the plot without giving the movie away.

*Possible Spoilers*

In short "Seven Pounds" is about an IRS agent who for some reason is intruding on the lives of random people. In videogame terms Will Smith's character Ben Thomas is on a quest to find people he can help. The reasons behind his actions remain a mystery but are some how connected to the death of his wife and several others. The film begins with the Ben discussing how his life changed in seven seconds. As is obvious from the title the number seven pays a key factor in the film. In seven seconds his life changed as a result Ben is distraught. Not much is known about this change except that it involved the death of his wife.

As the film unfolds the audience is introduced to several different characters including the characthers Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson) and Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson). Ezra's character is a blind muscian and meat salesman who doesn't eat meat, while Emily is a print artist who has a heart condition and who also does not eat meat. I mention the meat thing because it seemed to be a strange theme in the film, almost as if the director is pushing for veganism. No qualms here just thought it was interesting.

Back to the point at hand. Ezra does not play huge role in the movie yet his character is important for it ties into Ben's quest. The whole movie is about discovering what happened to change Ben's life and what he intendes to do as a result of this change. This of course is the obvious plot, but in time the film focuses mainly on the developing romance between Ben and Emily's characters. Though at times I feel that the film is trying to hard to push the emotions in one direction or another it really does a great job of creating those tear jearking moments. I am one who does not typically cry over a scene in a film unless I feel its done really well. And I will admite that Seven Pounds seems as if it is written with a lot of cliches in order to capitalize on those tear jearking moments. This, however, is probably my only issue with the movie aside from the its pacing. The film moves really fast for the most part. At times this helps to keep the audiences attention while at other times it causes gaps and questions. I don't mean plot holes only the gaps that bring to mind what just happened, how did we get from point A to point B so quickly? The characters are explained for the most part but I would have enjoyed more screen time with some of them such as Ben's brother who is always calling Ben throughout the film in order to get answers from Ben and to generally cause the audience to raise questions about Ben's motives. I think another character I wanted to see more of was Ezra. The interactions with him are meaningful, but overall I wanted to delve deeper into his character.

Overall I give the film 4 out of 5 stars because the film holds you in suspense and even causes you question some moral aspects about the world. For guys or anyone with a significant other who wants to get some brownie points i recommend this film as it will convey sympathetic condolances. I wish I could explain more about the film, but again its hard to do without giving so much away. If anyone wants to know more and does not care about spoilers then ask and I will post below. Also, the end of the film is good and makes you cringe in a good way.