"Seven Pounds" too heavy for Will Smith to shoulder

A convoluted tearjerker complete with murky camerawork and even murkier emotions, "Seven Pounds" is the tale of a man seeking redemption and a dangerously ill woman who grows ever more beautiful as her condition worsens. (This is a long cinematic tradition, popularly known as the "Love Story" syndrome.) Ben (Will Smith) is a mysteriously slick IRS agent who takes an unusually personal interest in his clients; Emily (Rosario Dawson) is a cardiac patient who's been having a little trouble paying her taxes. They meet. They fall in love. Choirs sing.

Director Gabriele Muccino, who previously collaborated with Smith on the (far better) drama "The Pursuit of Happyness," doesn't shy away from emotion, bringing out the heavenly choirs in the movie's final third and piling on the angst. But it all feels more than a little contrived. As Grant Nieporte's script unfolds, we learn more details about Ben, who's got an odd creepiness as he invades the personal lives of selected strangers — also among them are a blind pianist (Woody Harrelson) and a battered woman (Elpidia Carrillo) — and tries to help them. (It must be said, though, that it's not entirely clear how having sex with Emily, who's so weak she prettily collapses when walking her dog, is going to help her). Ultimately, "Seven Pounds" feels like an extended public service ad for a very specific act of kindness, which I won't name so as to not give away the movie's few surprises.

Smith, who can be a fine and nuanced actor when the project is right (see "Ali" or "The Pursuit of Happyness"), brings his usual ease to the role but just can't seem to get a handle on Ben, settling instead for an elaborate casualness alternating with a woe-

begone expression. He's a complicated character, with motives that aren't entirely clear until the story's various threads come together late in the movie, and Smith's trademark light touch is an awkward fit. This is, quite literally, a very dark movie — there's a scene in a motel where the room, magically, seems even darker when the lights are on — and a likewise role, perhaps better suited to a different kind of performer.

"Seven Pounds" ultimately has an uplifting ending and a message that's worth hearing, if you don't mind sitting through a lot of too-often predictable melodrama to get there. As holiday- season tearjerkers go, it's watchable — the constant time-shifts of the screenplay keep you interested, or at least alert — but a misfire; an actor tamping down his usual charisma in the service of making us cry.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725

or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com