Seven Pounds – film no. 708

Having been influenced by the slightly less favourable reviews of this film, I resolved to give it a miss and save two hours of my life. However, I was then wrongfull swayed by the judgement of my parents who claimed it was a very clever movie and worth watching… so I invested my time. What a foolish thing to do.
Seven Pounds is overly sentimental; someone on imdb declared that if it did not ‘reach the core of my soul’ i would not be human. Well I can assure you I am 100% human, just untouched by this syrupy excuse for a film. This was precious, annoying and really confusing. Throughout the entire film all I could think was ‘they’d better explain all these cliffhangers throroughly at th end’. Instead, Will Smith commits suicide by a jellyfish. I had a myriad of unanswered questions…who was the guy who had a ‘deal’ with Ben and then cried at the end? where did he get these special powers from? i.e. how could he fix that papermaking machine? being one of them. The only time I cried was when Will Smith was shouting down the phone at Woody Harrelson and I felt pretty sorry for him, alternatively I was also venting after a very long day. Most likely the latter. I also laughed out loud once, when Will Smith was humming that ‘loving youuuu is easy cos you’re beautiful’ song. But that’s the extent of any reaction I had to this film. It was pretty dull, not gonna lie.
The ending was a dissatisfying emotional payoff; ‘you must be Emily.’… excuse me while I gag. The cinematography was beautiful, especially memorable were the views of the beach and the shot of the candle outside on the table as its pouring down with rain. This is mostly a confusing film rather than intriguing, it may claim to be clever, but really its just quite intricate for the sake of calling itself deep. Also I found it quite patronising how the filmmakers are attempting to spoonfeed the audience lessons on atonement and responsibility. The lesson really should be don’t use your phone whilst driving. End of.
I really should have listened to my instincts/the reviews and saved two hours of my life. Now that is a valuable lesson I have learnt from watching this film.