“Seven Pounds is among the dumbest prestige films to vie for an award in this season of half-baked Oscar contenders,” said Robert Davis in Paste. “Some of my favorite films reveal their secrets gradually, and I love them for it.” But Gabriele Muccino’s purposely-vague new drama starring Will Smith as an IRS agent (watch the trailer here, via YouTube) “withholds information artificially, with flashbacks that end too soon” and “bread crumbs tossed out to string us along”—this movie is a waste of “time” and “talent.”
This movie is “a weeper wrapped in a mystery centered on an enigma,” said Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel. “But whatever pains cast and crew go to preserve its mystery, the movie's tears are righteous, as is its message.” Seven Pounds is “an emotional movie at the most emotional time of the year,” and “when the tears do come, it has earned them.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - December 22, 2024Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - the long and short of it, trigger finger, and more
-
5 hilariously spirited cartoons about the spirit of ChristmasCartoons Artists take on excuses, pardons, and more
-
Inside the house of AssadThe Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
