“Seven Pounds” begins with anguish — and no small amount of arrogance. IRS agent Ben Thomas sits on a bed gripping a phone. He’s on the line with 911, reporting a suicide.
Whose? His own.
Moving back and further back in time, this death-and-the-taxman tale, starring Will Smith, delicately reveals how Ben arrived at this crucible.
With the stinginess of a well-paced thriller, “Seven Pounds” reveals the event that set Ben on a completely different course. Whatever the tragedy — and the audience can guess parts of it — it came with loss and a load of guilt. “In seven days God created the world . . . in seven seconds I shattered mine,” Ben confesses early on.
Still, it’s not a disastrous accident but the obsessive quest Ben undertakes in response to make seven strangers’ lives whole that provides the movie its sentimental hook.
In a season of heavy-hitting awards contenders featuring A-list performers, a weighty start to a studio flick is hardly a shocker. But directed by Gabriele Muccino, the film isn’t about awards sniffing.
Its goal is more old-fashioned than that. “Seven Pounds” is a star-driven heartstring-tugger, committed to finding affirmation amid despair. If redemption comes with a little romance, so be it.
Rosario Dawson is Emily Posa, one of the people on Ben’s list. Barry Pepper plays the friend and lawyer charged with finding the right recipients for Ben’s generosity.
A wedding planner with a bad heart, Emily is in and out of hospitals when Ben enters her life. He’s come to audit her (so he pretends) at the worst possible time.
Relegated most often to kick-butt roles in graphic-novel fare (“Sin City” and “Grindhouse”), Dawson does nice work playing wary but curious. After all, initially Ben seems more stalker than suitor.
Not unlike its protagonist, “Seven Pounds” is a fractured tale. The pieces don’t fit neatly together.
Why, for instance, is this IRS agent so affluent? Why does he bully a blind telemarketer (Woody Harrelson) then turn into the furious champion of an old woman in a nursing home? When Michael Ealy shows up as Ben’s concerned — if rebuffed — brother, some questions are answered. New ones arise.
With its fragmented storytelling and evocative title, the movie courts comparisons to “21 Grams,” another film in which a tragedy is pieced together over time even as a love story unfolds.
“Seven Pounds,” written by Grant Nieporte, is kinder-gentler going — sort of. The film’s remarkable final act makes “Seven Pounds” a laudable example of a studio flick taking to heart its responsibility to entertain and engage.
Ben is not an easy character to inhabit. For all his altruistic impulses, he is not a “nice” guy. Summer’s superhero saga “Hancock” also tried to cut against the grain of Smith’s smooth persona.
Occasionally the actor grimaces with the effort of depicting a character whose torments run deep but whose sense of entitlement is a second skin. Striding through various spaces — a hospital, an assisted-living facility, a run-down motel — it’s clear he’s used to getting his way.
Much as they did when they teamed up for 2006’s “The Pursuit of Happyness,” Smith and director Muccino trust audiences to follow them to unexpected — even uncomfortable places.
Yes, “Seven Pounds” shares some appreciated lessons about love and loss and sacrifice. But the filmmakers also offer a moral about moviegoing, too: Not all holiday cheer need come in broad comedic strokes to warm the multiplex throngs.
“Seven Pounds”
PG-13 for thematic material, some disturbing content and a scene of sensuality. 158 minutes. Directed by Gabriele Muccino; written by Grant Nieporte; photography by Philippe Le Sourd; starring Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Michael Ealy, Barry Pepper and Woody Harrelson. Opens today at area theaters.
