Sunday, September 12, 2010

Se7en (1995) (R)

Se7en (1995) (R)
Directed by David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey

Daddy Says:

Serial killers. The United States has created of them than any other country on the planet. It should sicken us, but it also fascinates us. We want to know what goes on in their heads that can make these deviant personalities do the atrocious things they do. Four years after The Silence of the Lambs introduced a wide audience to Hannibal Lector, along comes Se7en to bring us John Doe.

This film came out five years before CSI hit network television, giving us this kind of subject matter on a weekly basis. These days, many of us are desensitized to the violence that gets portrayed on the screen. It takes a lot to shock us. But back in 1995, this was about as shocking as it could be. It's still a great concept for a film: a serial killer uses the seven deadly sins as his inspiration for murders. Will the detectives assigned to the case stop him before he reaches his conclusion?

The detectives are played by the always reliable Morgan Freeman, and a young Brad Pitt, who's only leading role before this was in Interview with the Vampire the previous year. He hadn't yet become Brad Pitt the movie star, the guy who married Jennifer Aniston, then left her for Angelina Jolie. Here he's just a young actor out to prove he can hang with the best of them, and he succeeds admirably. Gwyneth Paltrow does her best with an underwritten part, but really she's just here so she can be a "part" of the surprise ending (pun intended). Kevin Spacey is incredible as John Doe. 1995 was a big year for him, with this part, and his even better role in The Usual Suspects, he has made quite a career playing interesting roles such as these.

The film slows down in the middle a bit, after we've learned along with the detectives what the killer's modus operandi is, we're just kind of waiting for the end. But what an ending it is. It's a rare film that can have the hero, the villain and even the audience all wishing for the same thing to happen. It's not often in the last two decades that you get a film with what could be called an "unhappy" ending, yet still walk out of the theater feeling completely satisfied by what happened. 

Rating for Se7en: ****1/4. 

Daughter Says:

Once again, we’ve decided to review a movie that I’ve already seen. I saw this movie when I was really young. To be honest I was too young to understand what Se7en was about. But after watching it again I’ve totally got what the story was about.

The whole story is just really interesting. It’s true that I have never seen anything quite like this. The villain was truly a madman. I still can’t believe that anyone would ever do that to anyone to prove a point. It’s just so wrong.

Not only was that wrong, but when I first saw this movie I was cheering for Pitt to shoot the guy. Now that I’ve seen it for the second time and I knew what was coming, my reaction was completely different. It seems everytime I watch this movie I get a different reaction. I do that with a lot of movies. Even though I know what’s coming I still plead for it not to happen, but I guess that’s what the movie wants you to do. I think my connection with Pitt’s character really helped the movie. I felt like I was trying to solve the mystery myself and nothing was more obvious to the viewers than to the characters in the film. I really liked that. I also went through the same emotions as the characters, which really helps me understand the stress of solving this case.

Se7en really reminded me of the original CSI, before Grisom left. I loved that show and, to me, this movie was a whole lot like this. So if you are a huge fan of mysteries or even criminal cases in general you’ll probably like this. Se7en is down right wrong, which makes it that much more interesting and amazing.

Rating for Se7en: *****.

1 comment:

  1. I found the "city" distracting. It felt like Blade Runner, a future city, but when with Freeman I felt like I was watching a Humphrey Bogart - Spade movie. It made me feel "off" as I was watching it, and maybe that was intentional. But that and Paltrow's "acting" make me NOT want to watch it again. Though Freeman and Spacey are FANTASTIC!!!!

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