Seven Pounds is one of the best serious movies with Will Smith. A melodrama about the injustice of the world, the consequences of which can only be smoothed out by a human attitude and mercy towards one’s neighbor, about redemption and love, which brings meaning to even the most difficult and hopeless destinies. The meaning of the film is tragic, but, for the most part, lies on the surface and does not need additional interpretations.
What is Seven Pounds about?
A young man calls 911 to report a suicide. He names himself as the intended victim.
The beginning of the film is not trivial, the “from the end” technique is used, the first frames already show the denouement of the story. And this means that the main thing in the film is not the intrigue and its completion, but the paths that the heroes had to go through.
The main character of the story is named Tim Thomas. Two years ago, his seemingly completely frivolous oversight led to a big accident in which seven people lost their lives. Among these people was Ben’s lover, whom he was going to marry.
A man is haunted by a sense of guilt, he is trying to somehow compensate for the harm done to this world. He quits his successful career, gets a job in the tax office (it may seem that this is not the best choice for a person who decides to live for the benefit of people, but he did it not without intent).
The protagonist saves his brother’s life by giving him a share of his lung. So he “repays part of the debt” for the people who died through his fault.
A man decides to follow this path, he is looking for worthy, virtuous people or weak, those who no one else can help.
The next person Tim saves his life by becoming a donor is the good-natured child safety worker, Holly (she needed a part of her liver to start regenerating her own).
The third redeeming victim is a kidney transplanted to a hockey coach.
He then saves the life of a child, the boy Nicolas, by becoming a bone marrow donor.
Since Tim, in his determination to “give himself to the world,” was not going to stop, the man did not limit himself to donation. Through Holly, he meets a woman who is regularly subjected to domestic violence. Even children do not stop her husband. She cannot leave because she has nowhere to take her children, and she cannot leave them.
Tim gives the woman his house by the sea so that she and her children can live in safety.
Using his brother’s ID, having access to people’s tax histories, Ben (Tim) finds out who else is in constant treatment and needs donor organs (at the same time, the man is considering how to die without damaging the organs that should be transplanted).
The protagonist finds three candidates: a businesswoman, a blind pianist, and a nursing home manager.
The last candidate turns out to be a terrible person, so Tim gives up on the idea of helping him.
A musician (who makes a living selling meat) needs a cornea, and a woman (Emily) needs a heart.
Sympathy immediately appears between Emily and Tim, they fall in love with each other. But both of them understand that they will not be together for a long time, since Emily knows that she is sick and dying, and Tim knows that he is going to commit suicide, leaving his organs in his will.
Emily has very little chance of life, since there are very few heart donors in principle, and the woman also has a rare blood type (like Tim).
Tim, who has already begun to lose his resolve to commit suicide (for the first time in two years he had a meaning to live, he fell in love), decides to make the last sacrifice. This is where the understanding of what the film is about comes in. The noblest sacrifice is not for redemption, but in the name of love.
He commits suicide in a cold water bath, after writing a will on his organs (cornea and heart) and calling an ambulance.
The meaning of the film Seven Pounds
Redemption and sacrifice in the name of love are very popular motifs in cinema. However, in this melodrama they are originally opposed to each other, which is usually not done.
Is Tim to blame for the death of those seven people, for the loss of seven lives, really? The viewer cannot say this for sure, the viewer only sees that the protagonist considers himself guilty. Perhaps he could not influence this situation in any way, perhaps what he is experiencing is only a survivor complex.
However, he decides to “repay the debt”, which looks noble. Whether this is actually sacrificial is also unambiguous, because in fact, the hero parted with a life that he does not need. Tim doesn’t want to live when he donates a liver, a kidney, a lung, his house.
Real sacrifice, real redemption comes with love. The heart that he gives to the woman he loves already wants to fight on, this decision is difficult for Tim, but he acts nobly. There was more redemption in this one than in all previous sacrifices.
The meaning of the ending of the movie Seven Pounds
The film ends with a meeting between Emily and the awakened pianist after Tim’s death. The main character’s heart is now in the breast of the woman she loves, she can live on, the healed musician sees this (through Tim’s eyes). At that moment, the meaning of the ending is revealed – Tim seems to see that his sacrifice was not in vain, the price of seven lives was paid.
