SEVEN POUNDS

US, 2008, 123 minutes, Colour.
Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper, Elpidia Camilo, Bill Smitrovich.
Directed by Gabriele Muccino.

Mysterious title. Mysterious stranger. Mysterious behaviour.

Well, after a while audiences may realise that the weight of a human heart is seven pounds, so the title makes sense. Rosario Dawson sympathetically plays a young woman with a terminal heart disease waiting for a transplant. She is mysteriously befriended by an internal tax revenue officer who helps her in hospital and at home. As played by Will Smith, he is niceness personified – although he does break into some angry outbursts, especially near the beginning of the film where he is particularly and unnecessarily rude to a blind telephone service operator played by Woody Harrelson. He is also evasive with his brother and mysteriously puts pressure on his friend from school days played by Barry Pepper.

He also becomes involved with a social welfare worker and a Hispanic battered mother with two children.

This is one of those humane films that seems to irk reviewers who prefer cerebral activity to heart activity but appeals to audiences, especially if they know relatives or other people in similar plights. Will Smith appeared in the previous film by Italian director, Gabriele Muccino, The Pursuit of Happyness, which also dealt with suffering and possibilities for hope.

However, this time our hero remains tense and rather unhappy most of the time which means that the film is sometimes a bit 'miserabilist'.

The opening is emotionally arresting but the screenplay takes a while to unwind its plot and we need to be particularly alert to what is flashback and what is real time. The clues are all there and, by the end (or a bit before) we are able to piece it all together, a suicide attempt, a car crash, a jellyfish, space engineering, tax forms...

The ending (which publicists have specifically asked reviewers not to reveal) will raise quite a number of emotional and moral questions.

1.A Will Smith film? Serious? Ethical issues?

2.The Los Angeles settings, Ben as an IRS agent, his contact with people at work, the visualising of the workplaces, homes, hospital? The atmosphere? The atmospheric score?

3.The title, Ben’s life, the accident and its revelation at the end, the death of his family, his fault, the people in the van? His choice for people for restitution?

4.The opening, the focus on Ben, the phone call, the suicide attempt? Seeing this again at the end? His death? The morality of suicide for others?

5.Ben, his personality, the phone calls, his work as an IRS agent, his visits and phone calls, the flashbacks to his life as an engineer, the happy family? Ben as character, the revelation that he was taking his brother’s identity? His card? His guilt, self-loathing?

6.Dan as his friend, as a character, helping, collaborating and challenging?

7.Ben and his manner, alienating? His phoning Ezra, quizzing him, Ezra’s sight, vegan, meat company? Ezra trying to be courteous? Ben’s reaction? The audience upset – but later realising how Ben was testing Ezra and his being authentic? Ezra’s character, the build-up to the operation, his sight, meeting Emily?

8.Connie, the past encounter, Ben and his friendship, Connie and her children, domestic violence, the absent boyfriend? Her concern about her son? Ben’s visits, her suspicions? His relocating her to his mansion? The beauty of the house, the beach, the joy for the mother and the safety for her children?

9.The boy, needing a bone marrow transplant? Ben’s help? George, the coach, his dying, the good that he did for others and Ben’s wanting to help?

10.Emily, her heart condition, her work with her cards, unable to print? Meeting Ben, her suspicions? The puzzle, the hospital, her feeling that he was stalking her? Her dog and walking the dog? The dinner, the relationship, his fixing the printer, the sexual encounter and its effect on Ben?

11.The jellyfish, the puzzle, symbol?

12.Ben’s brother, finding him, the revelation of what was happening?

13.Ben’s death, the bath, the jellyfish, the phone call? The ambulance – and the organs for transplants?

14.The heart transplant, the arrangements, Emily and her recovery? The eye transplant for Ezra?

15.Ezra and Emily meeting, the memories of Ben?

16.The theme of reparation for the carelessness with the accident, the moral choice to help others, involving his killing himself? The emotional response of the audience by the end of the film?