Current IMDB score: 7.7
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Main Actors you care about: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson
Why I liked it: There is an African folklore that goes something like there was a lion and a man in the plains. The man noticed the lion needed some food to keep his/her pack alive. So the man knowing his life was not worth more than the lion pack let the lion and pack eat him so that the pack could survive. Sacrificing himself for lions. In the case of this movie it's a form of that but more of an act of redemption. It's a really interesting thought to go through about saving other lives in giving up your own. What I've come to conclude is if you can live in the situation and then after that event save as many lives as you can it would be better. So yea you'll save the lion pack or team but think about the amount of good you can do for the next twenty plus years of your life instead of being done then. Think of the countless good acts you could do to save lives. If you are going to save your own life you better make up for it and start saving others. Even if you don't have a moment in your life where you can sacrifice your life for others you should be getting ahead in karma by doing your best to help others in case one day you do. Maybe movies like these are just like Rorschach test to me but I see them as reason to be a better person. I'm sure others could see this movie as a lame, over dramatic, boring movie though.
Thing(s) I would change: I don't like that in the beginning he says he is committing suicide. I think that stops the movie from being amazing and adds to validity of it being boring. It's suppose to be a big secret of what he's doing yet they give too much away in the beginning in my opinion. I think it would have been a way bigger act had it not been given away in one of the first scenes.
"In seven days God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine." Terrible lines. So cheesy. Just really forcing the word SEVEN in the title, sins, etc. Those type of connections aren't needed for me anyway.
He should have stayed alive when he met her. As my "Why I liked it section" stated he could have had redemption in making her life really amazing along with six other people without having to kill himself. Granted she might not have gotten a heart and died but making her last few months/years alive amazing is still something worth doing. Just in real life you would just do whatever you could to help at least seven people if you did in fact ruin seven peoples' lives. As said in my Short Term 12 post, suicide doesn't make sense; helping people does.
Favorite Line(s)/Scene: I do love the jelly fish scenes. They bring a bit of beauty to an organism that I've never felt anything other than RUN AWAY about.
George Ristuccia: You know, Ben, I keep asking you this but why me?
Ben Thomas: Because you are a good man.
George Ristuccia: No, really.
Ben Thomas: Even when you don't know that people are watching you.
Live your life like everyone you've ever known is watching you. That leads to less regrets in life.
Similar Movies/TV Shows: Pursuit of Happiness a bit, Patch Adams, Amelie, Pay it Forward
"Side" note:
The movie title is a reference to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice play. One of the characters in the play agrees to pay a moneylender a pound of his flesh if his debt is not paid in time.
