Three Hankies for Seven Pounds

I just saw Seven Pounds at the Budget Theater (movie, large popcorn - with REAL butter! - large soda for under ten bucks). In short, I loved it! It was an old-fashioned, three-hankie weepie. The kind of movie Hollywood used to make during its heyday. In fact, Seven Pounds reminds me most of George Cukor's Camille starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor. Like the consumptive Marguerite Gautier played by Garbo, Rosario Dawson's doomed Emily Posa is incandescent on the big screen. Everyone who knows me knows I have a huge Rosario Dawson jones and Seven Pounds has leaped to the top of my "movies starring Rosario Dawson" list. Never has Miss Dawson been more appealing on the big screen.

Will Smith is also amazing in this movie. He is like a chocolate Michael Anthony: stoic, ingratiating, and professional in his ever-present business suit - except he is literally dispensing new life and not a million dollars from his briefcase. He wears his grief like a shroud, the full deadening weight of his loss apparent in his eyes even as he smiles and charms his way toward his chosen goal. What Smith does with this role is much more difficult and noteworthy than his Oscar nominated role in The Pursuit of Happyness.

There is not one thing I would change about this movie. While it becomes apparent early on what Smith's "Ben Thomas" is up to, the movie still manages to surprise the viewer in small ways both delightful and terrible. The slow, halting dance Smith and Dawson do toward each other is sweet and longing: a many-splendored thing.

I salute Mr. Smith and his producing partner James Lassiter and all the good folks at Overbrook Entertainment for adding this movie to the black film canon.

~rave!