I really don’t feel like reviewing Seven Pounds today. I’m not sure that I will feel like reviewing it any day soon.
Why?
Because it is a “feel” movie, not an “intellectualize” movie.
As a result, I have been explaining, in private conversations since I saw the film, that it is exactly the kind of movie that critics will loathe and that audiences will eat up with a spoon. The irony is that this is also exactly the kind of movie that the very same critics would be messing their shorts over if it were in another language. Then it would be profound. Starring Will Smith, released by Sony, it is maudlin, predictable, wah wah wah wah wah wah wah.
Here is the nitty gritty. The movie doesn’t force feed you… you have to think… and you think about what’s going on through the entire movie. Will Smith is not 100% Mr. Likeable. Rosario Dawson gives easily the best performance of her career, in an award-worthy turn. And if you are at all willing to do so, you will cry at some point in the film.
Variety, as has become its custom, is writing about Will Smith finally falling from grace. Don’t believe it. Anne Thompson points out the negative reviews from both Scott Foundas and Variety’s Todd McCarthy and calls them “devastating.” They are not. But Anne clearly agrees with them, so I guess they are really important.
Todd seems to forget that Variety panned The Pursuit of Happyness. (Oh yes… and Anne and Todd’s “Che’ needs to be cut into one movie” sales pitch also looks profoundly insightful in light of the sold out shows in NY and LA this last week.) And besides completely missing the boat on Rachel Getting Married, Foundas is in the group of the very confused people not only failing to pan Gran Torino, but selling the idea that it is profound. So…
I was able to find a really positive review of a Will Smith movie in Variety. But I had to go all the way back to 2001’s Ali to do it.
Seven Pounds - "an endlessly sentimental fable about sacrifice and redemption that aims only at the heart at the expense of the head"
Hancock - "has a certain whiff of “The Last Action Hero” about it" (McCarthy)
I Am Legend - “eerie yet annoyingly larded with cheap horror-film shock effects” (McCarthy)
The Pursuit of Happyness - "more inspirational than creatively inspired -- imbued with the kind of uplifting, afterschool-special qualities that can trigger a major toothache" (Lowry)
Hitch - The One Somewhat Positive Review - "stitches together relatively few laughs... script can't sustain the premise -- and saddles the actors with some truly leaden dialogue... arid stretches" (Lowry)
I, Robot - "no excuse for the lack of freshness and personality in this $100 million-plus CGI extravaganza" (McCarthy)
Bad Boys II - "As overblown as it is overlong" (McCarthy)
Men In Black II - "sporadically amusing but awfully lightweight" (McCarthy)
Ali - "a picture that feels bottled up rather than exuberant" (McCarthy)
I have no doubt that many of you will hate this movie. It is a tear-jerker. It is emotionally and intellectually manipulative. It is sincere. And like I said... it is demanding.
But if any of those elements appeal to you, you will quite like the film. And if not, there are plenty emotionally false, restrained, constipated dramas in the market to make you feel smart without ever shedding a single tear.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/12/seven_pounds.html