Movie Review: Se7en

Tania Says:
Another movie I had seen and remember totally loving it at the time. Josh loved it too and had seemingly watched it 100 times and told me to be on the look out for Brad Pitt stinking up the place. I didn’t remember Brad sucking so much but wow – he does indeed suck. Now, I like Brad Pitt – he has had some great performances (see 12 Monkeys or Snatch) but this is not one of them. Despite his horrible acting, this is still an excellent movie.

I don’t often notice lighting or the way a movie is shot but that is one thing I noticed first about Seven – it is so freaking dark and gloomy. Everything is lit in these yellow lights that creates the perfect mood for the piece. It constantly rains (until the end when the big stuff happens which I will not reveal) and the locations are amazing (my favorite is the library that Morgan Freeman visits) and it all fits together to create a mood. That mood ends up being a super important character in the film (and a better actor then Pitt!) So kudos Seven for making me notice things I never notice.

The story is very clever – if you don’t know it – it pairs grizzly veteran detective Morgan Freeman with hotheaded rookie Pitt on a serial murder case. The serial killer is killing based on the seven deadly sins and of course, Freeman is days from retirement. Despite the clichés in the characters the movie manages to be fresh and interesting. Some clunky dialogue and the aforementioned crappiness of the Pitt combined can’t ruin the film because of all the good things about it!

Paltrow does show up in a rather worthless role that is merely there as a device for the big incident at the end. Freeman is Freeman (in a rare non-narrating role!) and Spacey, who is the killer (minor spoiler) rules, which is never a surprise.

Josh Says:
I first saw this movie in the theater back in Seattle. I really disliked it.

I couldn't get past the clucky dialogue, the hack job by Brad Pitt or the weaksauce cop-out Paltrow scenes, only there as set up for something that I thought would have been a lot more powerful had there been more exposure to the relationship between she and Brad.

Fast forward a couple of years and I'm living in Vancouver. My good friend and roommate can't stop raving about this movie. He ends up buying the movie, I watch it again with an open mind intent on getting past it's obvious flaws and I loved it. I ended up watching this movie about a gazillion times and I still enjoyed it this time.

Part of me believes that Pitt's bad acting, the clucky dialogue, and other cheesy b-grade features (take Freeman's outfit) were conscious decisions somehow symbolic in the way that they so starkly contrast with the ultra-modern, tasteful and artistic way in which this is shot and the incredibly A-grade story itself.

The rest of me still just thinks that Pitt sucked and the dialogue sucks too, but the rest of the movie is/was so groundbreaking that the movie itself is still an enormous accomplishment in fim-making. I highly recommend it.

Dr. Scrubs was pretty sweet to uttering one of my all time favorite lines (cause in any emergency situation, I'm sure I'd react with equal incompetence) "Somebody call somebody!!!!"

Freemen, as always did a good job as the grizzled old actor being dragged into making one last movie or something like that.

Lastly, Kevin Spacey ruled in this so much. He used to always rule. Where has that Spacey gone? It's like he went to K-Pax and never came back.