Seven Pounds

Gabriele Muccino’s 2008 drama follows a man entering the lives of seven strangers on a plan he never explains. Summaries call him Ben Thomas; that name and the tax office credentials are his brother’s. His own name is Tim. Withholding is the design: Roger Ebert noted that for much of the first hour the man acts on a plan clear only to himself, and likened the film to Melville’s Le Samouraï. The reward is assembling his purpose yourself. Will Smith has said the title points to The Merchant of Venice and its pound of flesh, here seven gifts for seven deaths. It was his second film with Muccino after The Pursuit of Happyness. Connor Cruise, son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, made his screen debut here at thirteen, after auditioning. The sixteen million dollar opening weekend was the weakest for a Smith picture since Ali in 2001. A. O. Scott wrote that as the pieces snap together curiosity gives way to incredulity, and most viewers who turn on the film break there. The harder obstacle is the method: the character fills a bathtub with ice so his organs will keep, then pulls in the box jellyfish he kept as a pet. That preparation is staged step by step, so anyone needing distance from suicide should pass.