Seven Pounds (2008)

"...unabashedly emotional and cautiously hopeful. It's the feel-good movie for these feel-bad times.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"Will Smith gives the best performance of his career in a movie that pounds on your heart.  Jackie K. Cooper, JackieKCooper.com
"Will Smith could not be better in Seven Pounds, delivering a magnificent star turn in this heartfelt and harrowing drama.  Jeff Craig, Sixty Second Preview
"A spiritual successor to "The Pursuit of Happyness," but darker and more oblique.  Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"A life changing motion picture you will not easily forget. Will Smith is at his best. One from the heart and good for the soul.  Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

Editor's Note Gabriele Muccino (THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS) directs this tale of a man devastated by a tragedy in his past who is seeking redemption. To the outside world, Ben Thomas (Will Smith) is a cordial, atypically helpful agent for the Internal Revenue Service. But when he's alone, Ben is tormented by a tragic incident in his past, sinking into grief. He's even cut off communication with his beloved brother (Michael Ealy). Nevertheless, Ben is especially interested in strangers with challenging circumstances. He's taken particular interest in Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), a lovely young woman with congenital heart disease who is being audited by the IRS. Ben finds himself falling for Emily, and has to choose the best way to follow his heart. Smith wears Ben's heart on his sleeve, the pain of his past loss and his impending future apparent in his face both when he is alone and when he begins to feel happiness--which he doesn't think he deserved--with Emily. He also nails Ben's pleasant work persona, masking his pain as he charms strangers and earns their trust. Dawson is beguiling as Emily, whose only wish is to have more time to experience life, especially once she finds love with Ben. With flashbacks mixed into the story, SEVEN POUNDS takes a circuitous route, saving some surprises for its end. Woody Harrelson appears as a blind man, and Barry Pepper plays Ben's best friend and confidante, Dan.

	Woody Harrelson
	Barry Pepper
	Will Smith
	Rosario Dawson
	Phillipe Le Sourd - Director of Photography
	Will Smith - Producer
	Domenico Procacci - Executive Producer
	Todd Black - Producer
	Grant Nieporte - Screenwriter
	Jason Blumenthal - Producer
	James Lassiter - Producer
	David Crockett - Executive Producer
	Angelo Milli - Composer
	Steve Tisch - Producer
	Gabriele Muccino - Director

USA Today
"Smith gives an understated performance....Concerned with how people overcome trauma and tragedy, the film focuses on universal themes of loss, forgiveness and redemption." 12/19/2008

Chicago Sun-Times
3 stars out of 5 -- "Will Smith displays a rather impressive range of emotional speeds here....It's quite a performance." 12/17/2008

Box Office
"Cementing his reputation as the only blockbuster movie star with seemingly unflappable taste in material, Will Smith re-teams with director Gabriele Muccino to once again flex his considerable dramatic muscles in the thoughtful, engaging SEVEN POUNDS." 12/17/2008

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "SEVEN POUNDS opens strongly, intriguingly....SEVEN POUNDS delivers the stomach-kicking revelation it's been slowly building up to." 02/01/2009

DVD Talk 5 of 10
The tears flow like a raging river in "Seven Pounds," the latest Oscar-baiting step from Will Smith to solidify himself as an actor for all seasons. A murky stab at articulating emotional paralysis, "Pounds" plays dirty, selecting a path of confusion to unfurl its ache, resulting in a near absence of psychological or emotional connection the movie is absolutely desperate to conjure..."Seven Pounds" is many things, but the one quality that comes across as entirely unexpected is how much of a mystery the feature is. Director Gabriele Muccino (reteaming with Smith after their 2006 smash "The Pursuit of Happyness") and screenwriter Grant Nieporte are extremely protective of Ben's expedition of healing, using time changes and assorted masked qualities to make sure the audience has no idea what the character is ultimately hoping to attain. I'll give the production this, "Pounds" is not an easy film to predict, but this relentless ambiguity erodes the effectiveness of the overall experience, turning Ben's enigmatic misery into head-slapping filmgoing frustration...To best appreciate "Pounds" requires either hours of reflection after viewing or a second trip to the multiplex, and I'm not convinced the film is worth such dedication. The quandary is simple to indentify: to fully value Ben's journey requires knowledge of its conclusion, otherwise "Pounds" is a just a series of detached sentiment without a hub to study for maximum investment...It's difficult to paint an accurate portrait of "Seven Pounds" without giving too much away, but the end certainly doesn't justify the protracted means. If it wasn't for Dawson's tender performance elevating Smith's game, "Seven Pounds" would be just another useless tear-jerker, wishing to speak profoundly on the misery of human existence, but failing to encourage the audience to appreciate the experience. - Brian Orndorf

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
I am fascinated by films that observe a character who is behaving precisely, with no apparent motivation. A good actor brings such a role into focus, as Will Smith does in the enigmatically titled "Seven Pounds." Who is he, what does he want, why is he behaving so oddly for an IRS agent? And why won't he kiss Rosario Dawson, when they both so obviously want that to happen?...Will Smith displays a rather impressive range of emotional speeds here. He can be a tough, merciless IRS man. He can bend the rules on some cases. He can have a candlelight dinner with a beautiful woman named Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson) and go home afterward. She can sense his deep sadness. He is angry with people sometimes, but he seems angriest of all at himself. It's quite a performance...And Dawson makes Emily not simply a woman confused, maybe offended, by his behavior, but a woman of instinctive empathy, who does an emotional dance with him, following his lead when he needs to be treated like an IRS agent or like a perfect gentleman or like a man who needs understanding even if she doesn't know what she's supposed to understand...I haven't even hinted about the hidden motives in this film. Miraculously for once, even the trailers don't give anything away. I'll tell you one thing: I may have made Ben sound like an angel, but he is very much flesh and blood, and none of his actions are supernatural. He has his reasons. The director is Gabriele Muccino, who also directed Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness." He is effective at timing the film's revelations so that they don't come suddenly like a U-turn; they're revealed at the last necessary points in the story. Some people will find it emotionally manipulative. Some people like to be emotionally manipulated. I do, when it's done well. - Roger Ebert