"The concept itself is great... and also not executed well at all."

Seven Pounds has one fantastic scene that I wish we could all see and discuss. Sadly, to get to that scene you have to sit through quite a bit of melodrama (with a side of cheese), and to discuss the scene I'd have to spoil the entire movie for you. So here we are, without much room to discuss anything at all. Yay! It's another solid Laremy review coming at ya!

Will Smith is Ben Thomas, a man trying to make amends. For what? Can't tell you. To whom? Sorry, that would be a spoiler. But you should know that eventually Rosario Dawson gets involved and that the chemistry between Will and her is excellent. In fact, it's the one strong reason to see the movie (besides that one great scene).

So why is this film getting measly C+? It's got some problems. First off, the concept itself is great ... and also not executed well at all. In the vaguest terms I can think of, I'll mention that Will Smith's "amends making" isn't really the focal point of the movie. But it is the focal point of the trailers and movie title. So something went wrong. Either they were trying to make a romantic movie or a moral one, but there's not room for both ... and the film suffers for it. If we think of Seven Pounds as a math equation we could say that the film had five goals. It met two, ignoring the other ones throughout the running time. So we can't give a film like that a good grade (and we can't continue writing in the royal "we" either).

So see Seven Pounds if you're interested in the gnarly scene near the end or you're interested in the Rosario/Will relationship. Don't see it if you liked the trailer, because the trailer has little to do with the film -- and don't see it you like clear, logical and interesting stories. That's not what Seven Pounds is all about. Ultimately it's a movie that was probably written backwards, with the great concept and ending in mind, but without any real soul to the rest of it. Which sucks. This could have been one of the best of the year had they paid a little more attention to the story.

Grade: C+

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