Will Smith in Seven Pounds.

SEVEN Pounds sees Will Smith reunited with Gabriele Muccino, reuniting the same partnership that had such success with The Pursuit of Happyness.

 He also joined by Rosario Dawson, who plays Emily Posa, a woman whose heart is failing, and Woody Harrelson, as blind and vegan meat salesman, Ezra Turner.

Smith confirmed that the title for Seven Pounds comes from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice where the person in debt must pay a pound of flesh to repay the debt. In this case a pound of flesh for seven deaths.

The film has a very wayward structure, mostly made up of present and flashbacks, which sometimes leaves you confused as to what is real and what is a flashback.  The storyline is left very vague until right at the very end when all is explained.

In order to discuss the film I have to ruin it for you. Sorry. The storyline is that after Smith’s character, Ben Thomas, kills seven people in a car crash, including his girlfriend or wife, and in order to make himself even he gives seven gifts to seven good people.

Will Smith puts in, as usual, a very good performance as the guilty, yet ultimately kind, Ben Thomas and Rosario Dawson puts in a more than competent performance as Emily Posa. Woody Harrelson, I feel is massively underused, especially as he has such an interesting and, based on the few times you see him, an endearing and likable character.

The truth is I don’t know whether I enjoyed this film or not, On the one hand it has a lot of positive features, such as Smith’s performance and the story itself. On the other though, it has negatives, such as the poor use of Harrelson’s character and the extremely annoying way the film flip flops between flashback and present day.

The other thing that stumped me, was the way the story was told, it held all of the reasoning until the end. This would be a good way to tell it usually as it holds the viewers attention, especially in mystery films, but in this film it is nothing more than frustrating and confusing as to even a hint of a reason why he is doing these odd things.

Overall, it is a decent film, certainly watchable, if, to be honest, a little frustrating.