Seven Pounds 2008

Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies: That big twist at the end... if you go back and analyze it -- I'm not sure it holds up, but I don't think it really matters all that much. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Seven Pounds has a heart as big as all outdoors. Unfortunately it's made out of high-fructose bull Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Will Smith has fame, fortune, and a beautiful family, but that's not enough -- he wants you to know what a beneficent guy he is too. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It takes the soggy cake for multiple layers of sentimentality topped by indigestible grandiosity. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A convoluted tearjerker complete with murky camerawork and even murkier emotions. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Smith's quest is the worst kind of sentimental gimmick: He's like Oskar Schindler and Oprah rolled into one. But credit Smith and Pursuit Of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino for keeping the tone solemn and muted. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's only Smith's performance that makes the tears worth crying. Read more

Boston Globe: Too often the movie's preposterous ideas of goodly sacrifice blur the line between altruism and self-importance. Read more

Jan Stuart, Los Angeles Times: When an actor reaches a summit of unparalleled global popularity, it is probably hard to resist the temptation to play God. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: The film closes on a meeting between two characters that's now wayyyy high on my list of weirdest moments in cinema. It is, I think, supposed to be touching. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: As high concepts go, Seven Pounds is distasteful in the extreme. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Not all holiday cheer need come in broad comedic strokes to warm the multiplex throngs. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Seven Pounds features the best performance by a jellyfish in a film this year. Really, the thing is mesmerizing. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: An unintentionally ludicrous drama of repentance as an extreme sport. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Seven Pounds has one fantastic scene that I wish we could all see and discuss. Sadly, to get to that scene you have to sit through quite a bit of melodrama (with a side of cheese). Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: It's impossible to talk about the movie without revealing the least little thing about its secret. And the secret is so flimsy, absurd and obvious that, if we write about it at all, you could figure it out from almost the moment the movie starts. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Will Smith stars with aliens and zombies and superheros, yet this is his first film that's wholly unbelievable. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The script, by Grant Nieporte, seems to fundamentally misunderstand its moral themes. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The whole thing ends in what's meant to be a spectacular act of selfless generosity -- but really plays as mad, messianic egoism. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: You'll have plenty of time for your mind to wander; feel free to spend some of it imagining what this imposing pair could do with the right material. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The sad truth is that if you laid this movie out chronologically -- and maybe if you don't -- not a whole lot of it makes any sense. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: An emotional movie at the most emotional time of the year, it works to keep its secrets. But more importantly, when the tears do come, it has earned them. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: A case study in overkill. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: On an emotional level, one could decree that the movie is satisfying. On an intellectual level, it's disappointingly shallow. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I am fascinated by films that observe a character who is behaving precisely, with no apparent motivation. A good actor brings such a role into focus, as Will Smith does in the enigmatically titled Seven Pounds. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: As holiday heartwarmers go, Seven Pounds is so unintentionally ghoulish, it makes Black Christmas look like It's a Wonderful Life. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It affirms life as something enormous and important, not small, not meaningless, but monumental and worthy of big statements. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Seven Pounds is a difficult story, multilayered, spare and full of detail, thoughtfully told. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's probably safe to argue that never before has the spirit of giving been pushed any higher. How high? According to my altimeter, to that oxygen-deprived point where lachrymose meets laughable. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: You will either be frustrated with its asymmetrical and manipulative storytelling or be captivated by scattered clues that ultimately lead to some kind of resolution. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It's a lovely performance [by Dawson], in part because her character throws every charm she's got at the one man who seems doomed to deflect it. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: It's not what you'd call any good, but Claude Lelouch fans, say, might relish its grandiose romantic gestures in the face of all known logic. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: [A] dour, morally beclouded film that confuses generosity and grief, self-abnegation and self-annihilation. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While it doesn't break any new ground or provide any revelations, Seven Pounds is unabashedly emotional and cautiously hopeful. It's the feel-good movie for these feel-bad times. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Intricately constructed so as to infuriate anyone predominantly guided by rationality and intellect. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Dispiritingly obvious and phony from top to bottom Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's one of the clearest portrayals of a character's doubt, and ultimate resolution, I've seen in a good long while. Read more