Review of Se7en (1995) by Halfwelshman — 26 Feb 2012

Seven makes for a diverting, if rarely entertaining crime-thriller. The plot held so much promise - a film about a deranged serial killer basing his elaborate murders around the seven deadly sins could have been really interesting and really memorable.

As it is, Seven is always technically flawless, with atmospheric lighting, well-framed shots and a gritty noirish feel to the whole film (a testament to David Fincher's skill as a director even this early in his career), but it's just not particularly engaging.

The story moves at a snail's pace, with lengthy and clunky exposition and extended philosophy-heavy dialogue scenes linking together the discoveries of each of the victim's brutalised bodies. Morgan Freeman is at his very best playing good-natured and by-the-book, but and frustrated police detective William Somerset, and Kevin Spacey makes a creepy, emotionally detached killer.

Brad Pitt, however, is not on form. If you compare Detective David Mills to his most prominent roles just before and just after Seven (True Romance and Interview with the Vampire, and Twelve Monkeys) Pitt's performance just looks lazy, smug, and under-developed.

Gwyneth Paltrow as Tracy, Detective Mills' wife, makes little impact whatsoever. My main problem with Seven is that it seems to think that it's exceedingly clever, when in fact it's rather dumb. A relatively well-written script by Andrew Kevin Walker cannot hide a paper-thin plot which gives the film one point to make, over and over again - that the world isn't a very nice place.

Well, duh. I can still see Seven's influence on crime and horror films, but I really think similar material has been handled far better, and far less pretentiously in recent years (the first Saw for instance, I find far more engaging, entertaining and memorable).

At least the film has a now iconic, and well-crafted finale - and I think Fincher owed us that after making us sit through a very long, quite boring piece of mock-intellectual schlock. Seven may look good, and Freeman and Spacey are great, but the rest of the cast, the lazy and plodding story, and film's misplaced feel of smugness in its own brilliance really let it down.

And people who spell the film "Se7en" make me want to think up my own cruel and unusual punishments...