All the secrecy about the plot in the centre of Seven Pounds seems to be, in my estimation, a whole lot of nothing. Frankly, there’s nothing spoiled that isn’t in the trailer, though discretely, and despite requests to the contrary, I’m going to talk about the facets of the plot because to do so otherwise would be like talking in tongues. The story of Ben Thomas, as played by Will Smith, is a tale of a man so drowning in his own sorrows that he concocts an elaborate scenario where in he plans an altruistic suicide, leaving notice that upon event of his death, certain organs harvested will go as donations to certain, worthy individuals.

Smith’s Ben is obviously a disturbed individual and throughout the movie, we see flashes of the event that turned him around from being a successful aerospace engineer to a shattered shell of his former self, creepily stalking seven people for some purpose. On his list is a mother with two children trying to flee an abusive relationship; a hockey coach needing a bone marrow transplant (Bill Smitrovich); a blind telemarketer (Woody Harrelson); and a sickly woman awaiting a heart transplant (Rosario Dawson). It’s this last individual, Emily, who seems to enrapture much of Ben’s attention. Could he be falling for her? You know he is, because it makes the story sadder and it’s Rosario Dawson, so how could he not?

Now, I’ve read a lot of chatter online that’s praising this movie as being “moving” or “beautiful,” because Will Smith’s character doesn’t just commit suicide to relieve his pain, but he kills himself in order to give life to others. Am I the only one who thinks this is a messed up message? Allowing an obviously mentally disturbed person to kill themselves is okay, so long as some good comes out of it; in this case: giving others life through organ donation. As a moral issue, we’re told suicide is never an option, especially when that person suffers from a mental disorder, like Ben’s post-traumatic stress disorder.

Think about it, if you had a friend that after being in a tragic accident that killed your wife and six others and he came to you and said, “I’m going to kill myself, but first I’m going to find seven people in need that would benefit from my death,” would you be like Barry Pepper’s BFF and go, “Sure buddy, whatever you need.” Or would you be a rational person and call his brother and have Ben committed to prevent him from harming himself. To me the ending would have been more shocking had Ben decided to live and do the work to get better. This is Hollywood pandering at its worst. Presuming that people will swallow suicide as a heroic act like some advanced kind of morality. “At the end of your rope? Don’t feel like living anymore? Well, get in a bath tub full of ice, kill yourself and will your organs to needy people. After all, it’s not like you want to use them anymore.”

One thing I will give Seven Pounds credit for is being a very well acted downer of a confused morality play. Smith continues to demonstrate a certain kind of chameleon charm as he throws himself into the part. And even though, I couldn’t in a million years identify with Ben’s ultimate act, I can respect and appreciate his desire to do something good for others because they deserve it. Smith shows great conviction in playing the part, even though the script is filled with plot holes and messed up notions of valour and the meaning of life. As the film heads screaming for its denouement, all I can think about is how messed up that a man with so much promise is abled by the people closest to him to terminating all that promise. It’s really quite a disturbing thought.

Somewhere, somebody thought that this was going to be high-brow cinema that would cash-in on pre-Award season buzz and lead to some meaty nominations for the key players, which only makes the final outcome all the more disturbing actually. Truly, there’s nothing beautiful about Seven Pounds, and in actuality, it’s really quite ugly. And worse still, it feels like it takes forever to get there, which is really long way to go to finish up a downer film that leaves you a little disturbed by finding poetry in a mental illness related suicide.