Are You With Us?
Se7en
By Ryan Mazie
September 26, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Even before I watched Se7en, the film won me over by incorporating the number into the title (I can’t help it, I enjoy clever misspellings). Unlike most films I write about, I have actually seen Se7en before, but I was most likely way too young at the time to be watching it. So this time around, I enjoyed the movie even more, not only because I picked up on little nuances (such as all the subtlety Morgan Freeman wonderfully uses in his performance) and bigger things as well (such as the ending).
Set in an unspecified rain-slick city full of urban decay, Se7en stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman respectively as the newbie, gung-ho Detective David Mills and the taking it slow, ready for retirement, , Detective Lt. Somerset. The yin-yang detectives immediately find themselves paired up on a gruesome murder case that appears to be the work of a serial killer who is using the seven deadly sins as his motivation.
A fairly straightforward premise, Se7en operates above most detective-thriller films and remains the genre’s benchmark. While I gave a lavish amount of praise to Fincher in the last column, Se7en is the first time he truly showed his talents to the audience after the Alien 3 debacle (Ali3n would’ve been a better title). Allowing the atmosphere to become a character in itself, Fincher only needs to show the aftermath of the killer’s murders for the viewer to feel the gruesomeness that we were spared to witness. Less is more and Fincher certainly knows how to apply that principle.
Hitting the ground running, Se7en’s character development is interwoven between the nasty crime scenes, displayed during the sleuthing interactions. Pitt and Freeman have an excellent balance of young and old, creating the ever-elusive “chemistry.” Impulsive to the point of reckless, Pitt is entertaining to watch in one of my favorite roles of his (besides Fight Club, of course). However, his acting is massively overshadowed by Morgan Freeman’s much more nuanced performance. Almost a mentor to Mills, Freeman is the grounding figure to the film – especially when it comes to the veering third act.
Scripted by Andrew Kevin Walker (who fell off the map after the ‘90s besides a credit for disastrously-delayed The Wolfman), Se7en has an intelligently dark vibe that unfortunately puts shock and stylization over reason and realism. Any famous villain needs a great motive, and Walker hits the jackpot going with the seven sins – ripe for analysis and discussion.
A bit heavy-handed at times when the film is trying to feign meaning in the gore and rolling in self-indulgence when it comes to the religious aspect, luckily Se7en redeems itself by shying away from this territory and instead focusing on the detective’s personal relationships.
To give the audience a surprise on the identity of the killer, Kevin Spacey was absent in the marketing of the film. Undeniably creepy, Spacey is cold and calculating, with a certain Hannibal Lecter-like reasoning to his madness. In fact, the biblical punisher ranked among the cannibal in Entertainment Weekly’s Top Movie Villains Showdown.
Gwyneth Paltrow, an actress who I do not get the appeal of whatsoever, is satisfactory as Detective Mills' wife, whose only purpose (major spoiler alert) is to be pleasant enough so the audience can be jarred at the shocking ending (I would never wish anyone death, but knowing that her head was in that box made me smile a little bit).
Dating on and off screen, the Pitt-Paltrow romance helped drum up the publicity machine for Se7en’s September 22, 1995 release date. This year on the same frame is Killer Elite, another R-rated thriller geared to adults, that I am sure teens will enjoy as well, although won’t reach the critical level of Se7en. Budgeted at $30-some million dollars, Se7en debuted to an okay $14 million ($25.6 million today). However, with rave reviews from critics and even better words coming from the audience (the film currently ranks at number 27 on IMDb’s Top 250 Films chart), Se7en topped the box office for an entire four weeks, ending its run at $100 million ($183.5 million today), becoming the top R-rated grosser of that year. An extra $227 million came pouring in from overseas, thanks to Brad Pitt’s global appeal.
Se7en gave a boost to the ailing detective genre, which was waning in popularity and quality. I love these thrilling crime movies, which are always entertaining on their own terms, but unfortunately near extinction nowadays. For me, though, the most important thing Se7en accomplished was bringing David Fincher back into the world of directing. After a terrible experience on the Alien 3 set, full of studio interference (Google it if you want to learn more – it’s an entertaining behind-the-scenes read), Fincher said that he was uninterested in directing a feature film again until the script of Se7en was sent his way.
But that did not mean that New Line (the studio behind Se7en) wasn’t tempted to have a presence in Fincher’s film. Wanting to rework the ending for something more thrilling with an elaborate chase scene and more exposition on the serial killer, Fincher held a united front with power players Pitt and Freeman on his side to stick to the original script.
New Line in the end must have been happy to let Fincher keep his way, for Se7en showed that the studio was able to attract quality directors and actors to its wheelhouse that up to this point only made genre films (i.e. Hollywood jargon for movies that are either made to appeal to minorities like House Party 1-3, or teens like Nightmare on Elm Street 1-7).
Re-released in January as a reminder for Oscar voters (and to break the $100 million milestone), New Line was too new at the game to helm a successful Oscar campaign for Se7en. And in retrospect, having Babe get a Best Picture nomination over Se7en shows how out of tune New Line is when it comes to campaigning for one of those little golden men. In the end, Se7en scored one nomination for Best Film Editing.
Kevin Spacey and Brad Pitt were given their Oscar dues the same year, but for different movies. Spacey rightfully won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Usual Suspects while Pitt had to settle for a nomination in the same category for 12 Monkeys (a film I dislike and back-handedly, my favorite Terry Gilliam film).
Terrifically moody and intelligently thrilling, Se7en is a benchmark when it comes to cop thrillers. Serving style over substance a bit too often, Se7en is still sinfully delightful.
Verdict: With Us
8 out of 10