A collage of strong scenes, dull bits, good filmmaking and a dissatisfying emotional payoff. A laudable attempt to tackle heavyweight subject-matter that ends up just being heavy weather.
Comment
01/16/09
Seven Pounds (2008)
27
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:172
Fresh:47
Rotten:125
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: Grim and morose, Seven Pounds is also undone by an illogical plot.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:16-01-2009
Synopsis: Academy Award® nominee Will Smith reunites with the directors and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness for the emotional drama Seven Pounds. In the film, Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with... [More]
Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Reviews for Seven Pounds
Top CriticIt’s not what you’d call any good, but Claude Lelouch fans, say, might relish its grandiose romantic gestures in the face of all known logic.
01/16/09
Top CriticSeven Pounds can feel too heavy at times but Smith carries the film.
01/16/09
Top CriticSeven Pounds is a profoundly irritating mystery about a profoundly silly man.
01/16/09
Top CriticA supremely annoying film.
01/16/09
Top CriticThis is a 24-carat wallow in weapons grade mawkishness.
01/16/09
Click to read the article
01/16/09
Top CriticSeven Pounds feels like having Love Story and Beaches burnt onto your retinas in the style of A Clockwork Orange. But hang on for the finale...
01/16/09
Top CriticThe worst movie ever to star Will Smith, this is a morbid drama which is meant to reduce its audience to tears of empathy, but reduced me to groans and helpless laughter.
01/16/09
It is a complex movie, but also an absorbing and moving one - and in truth Will Smith does bring an extra dose of class that helps it succeed.
01/16/09
Seven Pounds is Will trying to be weighty but unlike The Pursuit Of Happyness (also directed by Muccino) it doesn’t work.
01/16/09
Top CriticSeven Pounds compounds the schmaltz in a tale of goody-goody benefaction and glutinous redemption, whose plot the distributors mercifully injunct us from revealing.
01/16/09
Soppy romance and excruciating piety cling to the film like bindweed, summoning the ghost of sobfest Pay It Forward, with the divine parallels of self-sacrifice taken to extremes of righteous absurdity.
01/16/09
mith’s charisma holds the interest, even if this and his other recent movies (I Am Legend and Hancock) suggest the only thing bigger than his ears is his Messiah complex.
01/16/09
Ill conceived, poorly written and badly directed drama, featuring a career worst performance from Will Smith.
01/16/09
Will Smith is fast turning into the movie actor's Reader's Digest - an uplifting guide to healthy living and doing worthy things.
01/15/09
As the convoluted structure finally reveals the actual plot, it brings with it the unmistakable whiff of a vanity project
01/01/09
A slow, improbable and very mawkish drama.
12/19/08
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09/08/09
The ending will divide viewers. Some will shed tears, others will be outraged. It's a bold artistic choice, but one of questionable morality.
08/30/09
Latest News for Seven Pounds
January 16, 2009:
UK Critics Consensus: The Wrestler Pile-drives The Critics, But Don’t Waste any £s on Seven Pounds
With critical success for Slumdog Millionaire last week (94%), we have more award-friendly fare in the UK cinemas this Friday in Darren Aronofsky's spandex-tastic The Wrestler.... More...
December 28, 2008:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Marley Takes #1, The Spirit Tanks
This weekend people were in the mood for movies over Christmas weekend as multiplexes were jam-packed with customers that powered four different new releases to more than $30M... More...
December 22, 2008:
Will Smith as widower wracked with guilt. 
More...
December 21, 2008:
Smith, in his typical impressive pressure cooker character fashion, is a nervous wreck suicidal IRS agent who raises pet jellyfish, and seems to enjoy harassing when not stalking his clients. Paging Dr. Kevorkian.
More...
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