Seven Pounds

I was just sick of the incessant pre-release advertising for movies. Most publicity budgets these days are well over the amount most of the classics cost to make. It’s the relentless assault of images from the films at a level that throws every scene at you. Trailers come hard and often at such a fast clip that the mind records, analyzes and digests them entirely. The drive for weekend dominance. Rapid-fire box office profit. Look, it’s a Will Smith/Rosario Dawson movie. And I was determined to see it based on that alone.

Will Smith is a fine actor who has definitely evolved. His fame and fortune were had on the strength of his ability to entertain. Initially with music, then television and finally film. There are two people on the planet that can immediately lighten a mood under any circumstances. One is named Will, the other Williams. Both do exceedingly well when asked to turn it around in an intense drama. Smith has earned respect through hard work and consistency. It is fitting then that the Fresh Prince has elevated to the throne of the reigning King of Hollywood.

Seven Pounds is a movie that finds Ben (Smith) in the midst of plotting a course for the future. The details of which are slowly revealed. But it would be a mistake to think of these happenings as the focal point. That is reserved for Ben and his drive for what we all desire – to have meaning associated with his existence. And it’s the journey to this end that brings the movie its strength. This is not a comedy and the buffoonery and cuteness Smith can muster up is nowhere to be seen. It was a wise choice to play this one straight and thus provide an unadulterated view a great actor plying his trade.

Rosario Dawson (Emily) is a great actor in her own right. I remember seeing her in a movie some years ago that she electrified with her presence, but the role was limited. Here, we get the opportunity to see Rosario delve deeply into a character that is entirely as intricate as that of Ben. Her treatment of the multi-dimensional Emily plays well against Smith’s complicated task of pulling just the right strings in his emotional turn as Ben.

Woody Harrelson plays against character in a supporting role as well. His diminished minutes here have no correlation to the caliber of his performance. His subtle expressions as Ezra are a visible reminder of Harrelson’s mastery of the mask. Another seasoned veteran, Barry Pepper, is cast as Ben’s childhood buddy turned attorney. I have been formulating a theory for some time that Hollywood indirectly chooses replacements to fill the gaps left when a particular actor disappoints, grows old or simply cannot turn on the magic any longer. Barry Pepper was the chosen one who stepped in and filled the shoes of one Gary Busey. He was a potent addition to any cast before the years of abuse, accidents and age left him ravaged. Pepper is a measured, perhaps tempered hint of the Busey hi-life days. Whereas Busey did not have the controlled humility to play an updated version of ‘Sergeant York’, Pepper would be the odds on favorite.

So, I enjoyed the film. I watched it on a 40”, Samsung 1080P/40,000:1, 630 series LCD. It is much preferred to the experience of a tiny-sectioned movie ‘viewing room’ they call theaters these days. Had I the opportunity to see it, say, in a ‘Music Box’ type, true majestic theater (in Chicago), I would have jumped on it. But those days are gone, and the reasons for operating such magnificent establishments have evaporated with them. Lucky for us then, that art like ‘Seven Pounds’ is still being cranked out somewhere in the hearts and minds of a city that is so often accused of having neither.