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Seven Pounds
A man with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. A man with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. A man with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
- Gabriele Muccino
- Grant Nieporte
- Rosario Dawson
- Woody Harrelson
- 755 User reviews
- 204 Critic reviews
- 36 Metascore
- 4 wins & 7 nominations
Top cast 78
- Ben's Brother
- (as Joseph A. Nuñez)
- George Ristuccia
- Stewart Goodman
- George's Doctor
- Connie's Daughter
- Connie's Son
- Assisted Living Nurse
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Did you know
- Trivia Ben ( Will Smith ) stays at the Travel Inn in Los Angeles, California. This hotel was used before in Memento (2000) .
- Goofs Jellyfish can live in captivity as long as their tank is round. Round tanks keep the jellyfish from getting trapped in the edges, which they can't escape without a water current.
[first lines]
911 Operator : 911 emergency...
Ben Thomas : I need an ambulance.
911 Operator : I have you at 9212 West Third Street in Los Angeles.
Ben Thomas : Yes, room number 2.
911 Operator : What's the emergency?
Ben Thomas : There's been a suicide.
911 Operator : Who's the victim?
Ben Thomas : I am.
- Connections Featured in Bad Movie Beatdown: Seven Pounds (2010)
- Soundtracks Asi Sera Written by Rick Garcia and Rene Reyes Performed by The Green Car Motel Courtesy of Red Porch Music
User reviews 755
Seeking redemption.
- claudio_carvalho
- Jan 20, 2012
- How long is Seven Pounds? Powered by Alexa
- Is "Seven Pounds" based on a book?
- Is the gift Ben gave to Ezra possible?
- Why would Ben want to donate seven pounds of flesh?
- December 19, 2008 (United States)
- United States
- Official Facebook
- Pasadena, California, USA
- Columbia Pictures
- Relativity Media
- Overbrook Entertainment
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- $55,000,000 (estimated)
- $69,951,824
- $14,851,136
- Dec 21, 2008
- $169,748,929
- Runtime 2 hours 3 minutes
- Dolby Digital
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Movie Review | 'Seven Pounds'
An I.R.S. Do-Gooder and Other Strangeness
By A.O. Scott
- Dec. 18, 2008
“Seven Pounds,” which reunites Will Smith with Gabriele Muccino (who directed him in “The Pursuit of Happyness”), begins with a series of riddling, chronologically scrambled scenes. A man calls 911 to report his own suicide. He badgers a blind call-center employee whom we suspect will be a significant character, since he’s played by Woody Harrelson with complaints and insults. He embraces a lovely woman in an even lovelier beach house. He visits a nursing home where he terrorizes an administrator and comforts a resident.
For a while it is pleasant enough to contemplate these loose ends, and to tease from them the possible contours of a story. It is never unpleasant to watch Mr. Smith, who likes to play peekaboo with his charm, hiding it now and then behind fleeting shadows of anguish or malice. The music (Angelo Milli’s score and a handful of emotive pop songs) combines with the deep colors of Philippe Le Sourd’s cinematography to summon up intensities of sentiment not yet arrived at by the narrative, creating an interesting frisson of suspense. After a while, though, as the pieces of the puzzle snap together, curiosity gives way to incredulity.
Near the end of “Seven Pounds” a carefully laminated piece of paper appears, on which someone has written, “DO NOT TOUCH THE JELLYFISH.” I wouldn’t dream of it, and I’ll take the message as a warning not to divulge the astonishing things that happen, not all of them involving aquatic creatures.
Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?
And I wish I could spell out just what that was, but you wouldn’t believe me, and the people at Sony might not invite me to any more screenings. So instead of spelling out what happens in “Seven Pounds,” I’ll just pluck a few key words and phrases from my notes, and arrange them in the kind of artful disorder Mr. Muccino seems to favor (feel free to start crying any time):
Eggplant parmesan. Printing press. Lung. Bone marrow. Eye transplant. Rosario Dawson. Great Dane. Banana peel. Jellyfish (but you knew that already). Car accident. Congestive heart failure.
Huh? What the ... ? Hang on. What’s he doing? Why? Who does he think he is? Jesus! That last, by the way, is not an exclamation of shock but rather an answer to the preceding question, posed with reference to Mr. Smith. Lately he has taken so eagerly to roles predicated on heroism and world-saving self-sacrifice see “I Am Legend” and “Hancock” that you may wonder if he has a messiah clause in his contract. Which is not to say that he doesn’t show range in these films, in which he credibly plays a research scientist, a dissolute superhero and, in this latest one, an I.R.S. agent.
An I.R.S. agent who wants only to help people. This is a nice, small joke that provides a few grace notes of levity in what is otherwise a lugubrious exercise in spiritual bushwa. For all its pious, earnest air, “Seven Pounds” cries out to be remade as an Asian horror movie, so that the deep, creepy grotesqueness of its governing premise might be allowed to flourish, rather than to fester beneath the surface.
As it is, the movie is basically an inverted, twisted tale of revenge. Ben Thomas, Mr. Smith’s character, is in essence a benevolent vigilante, harassing, stalking and spying on unsuspecting citizens for their own good, and also to punish himself. Why such misery should also be inflicted on an innocent, affirmation-hungry audience and also on the marvelous Ms. Dawson, who plays one of Ben’s victim-beneficiaries is another matter entirely.
But maybe I’m approaching this in the wrong way. Maybe “Seven Pounds” isn’t a spiritual parable about redemption or forgiveness or salvation or whatever, but rather a collection of practical lessons. Don’t drive while using a BlackBerry. Fertilize your rose bushes with banana peels sorry, that was a spoiler. But please, whatever you do, don’t touch the jellyfish.
I’m serious. Don’t.
“Seven Pounds” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Swearing. Soulful sex by candlelight. Car accident. Eggplant parmesan.
SEVEN POUNDS
Opens on Friday nationwide.
Directed by Gabriele Muccino; written by Grant Nieporte; director of photography, Philippe Le Sourd; edited by Hughes Winborne; music by Angelo Milli; production designer, J. Michael Riva; produced by Todd Black, James Lassiter, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch and Will Smith; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes.
WITH: Will Smith (Ben Thomas), Rosario Dawson (Emily Posa), Woody Harrelson (Ezra), Barry Pepper (Dan) and Michael Ealy (Ben’s Brother).
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