| Rating: | ★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Drama |
After Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness, I was kind of expecting a similarly crafted drama in Seven Pounds. But ten minutes or so into the film, I still couldn’t figure out what the movie is all about.
Will Smith plays Ben Thomas a.k.a. Tim, an MIT-educated aeronautical engineer who poses as a lowly tax collector (Ben’s words, not mine!). Why did he do that? I mean pretend to be an IRS guy. Well, I only found out mid-way into the movie. But that’s getting ahead of myself. Let’s try again…
The film opens with Tim/ Ben making a 911 call, asking for an ambulance for a suicide victim who happens to be… tadah! Him. And then, flashback. He is seen talking to several people, including a blind customer service guy, a man who yells at old ladies, a dying young woman who has a congenital heart disease, an ice hockey coach who needed bone marrow transplant, a welfare lady being abused by her boyfriend, and his best friend.
At first, Smith’s IRS persona running after people who owe the government tax money seemed boring. Not until he said these seven words: “I want to give you a gift.” I thought, "Great! He’s giving them enough time so they could pay their back taxes. But is he even authorized to do that? He’s just a lowly tax collector!" But then, it turns out that these people on his list were not tax evaders but a roster of individuals who needed help. He was running after them in order to find out whether they were deserving of the gift or not.
And that bothered me a lot. Because the ‘gifts’ he wanted to give away were the various organs of his body. Which he wanted to donate after his death. Or rather, his suicide.
Of course, giving away parts of one’s body after death is a noble undertaking. I myself want to be an organ donor because I know my heart, my eyes, part of my liver, my kidneys and even my lungs could possibly save lives. But in Seven Pounds, two things greatly disturbed me: Ben/ Tim wanted to donate his organs in order to lessen the guilt in his heart, and two, he purposely took his own life. That, to me, seems very, very wrong.
Woven into the story were snippets of Tim’s fiancee being alive, Tim’s fiancee dying in a vehicular accident, a family of six dying in the same accident and a truck driver who likewise got hurt. Guess what? Tim was also in that accident. Guess what, again? He was the only one who survived. And, guess what, again? He was the one who caused it, because he was texting while driving.
I can imagine the guilt Smith’s character was carrying all those time after that fatal incident. I myself would want to die if I were in his shoes. But dying so other people might get a new lease at life won’t change things for him. Besides, one Man has already done that 2,000 years ago. And nobody else can do what this Man did. Ever.
Yes, 2,000 years ago, God said the same seven words: “I want to give you a gift.” But He didn’t run around chasing a shortlist of people just so He could find out whether they were deserving or not. The gift was for all, deserving or not. And the death that could change the life of mankind? It wasn’t up to Jesus. Didn’t He say, “Not my will, but the Father’s be done.”?
So where’s that elusive redeeming factor again? I guess the only thing worth redeeming here would be your wallets—from spending Php 130 on a movie ticket to see this film.
