"Very well, let's do it; I'm willing to sign such a contract."
— —Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice: Act I, Scene III.
One lung; one kidney; one bone marrow; one liver; one house; one pair of eyes...a heart.
Ben Thomas, biological brother; George, ice hockey coach who helped teens go to college; Nicholas, mother-dependent, quiet, strong black child; Holly, female employee at Family Services and Child Welfare and Security; Connie, tenacious in domestic violence A minority mother raising her children; Ezra, the kind and forgiving blind beef salesman; Emily Bossa...the woman who made him smile and made him choose death.
Ken Anderson; Nicola Anderson; Elle Anderson; Ed Rhys; Steven Phillips; Monica Freeman; Sarah Jenson...One summer, Cojo Freeway Seven victims of the car accident.
Tim Thomas. A boy who is obsessed with the pure white and dancing of box jellyfish, an outstanding aerospace engineer who dreamed of flying since childhood, a painful soul who bears seven lives because of seven seconds of mistakes, a lonely figure who lost his new wife at the same time, and a soul with inner heart. A man who signed a contract with faith and repaid it by himself.
"In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine."
Like religion, people go to the cinema not to see a real world, but to see a world that compensates for the known world . In "Seven Pounds", Tim Thomas carried his "original sin" with his deep-set eyebrows from the first second of the film, so this journey of self-redemption was doomed. It is tragic, its poignant beauty, its great courage and will, its ultimate compensation for the real human nature.
Feature: God's Note
"It's the show of the skin," French filmmaker Jean Epstein once said.
However, what the close-up captures is not just a magnified and nuanced appearance, but a revelation, an emotion, a quiver of the soul revealed through this external symbol. For example, by photographing the crystal of a drop of dew to describe the morning time; by the flutter of a butterfly to praise the vitality of nature; by the momentary tightening of the cheek muscles to reveal the tension or anger; by the momentary dimness of the eyes to confirm pain. At that moment, the things in the viewfinder seemed to be touched by the fingertips of God, and the original meaning was revealed as the lens zoomed in infinitely.
In this film - I believe it is based on Will Smith's delicate acting that makes the director so strong - the close-up of the camera favors Tim Thomas' face many times. If at the beginning of the film, Tim's painful but determined eyes when he told the police that he was about to commit suicide, and the clearly discernible blue veins on his forehead did not shock the audience enough, then in the second half of the film, he was recalling The bitter and happy smile she showed when she got along with Emily was enough to make even strong people feel sorry for it. At that time, he was sitting alone among the pale yellow wheat straw, smiling at the corners of his mouth, but his eyes showed the sorrow that had been carefully suppressed. Unlike when he decided to give his last life--an unreserved release of emotion in Tim's eyes--in such a softly lit, breezy wheatgrass, Amy. Li's words and smiles were still in the ear, and the camera's close-up accurately captured the eyes that conveyed Tim's mood at the moment - it was a smile stained on the background of pain, but at the same time it was also a happy expression. The calm desolation faintly revealed beneath the memories. Sometimes, the plot is the step, and the emotion is the key to the door. If such subtle emotional changes need to be interpreted by skilled actors and understood by attentive viewers, then there is no doubt that the use of close-up shots will make the rendering of details more shocking, making it easier to sense, until Touching hearts.
The box jellyfish, such a beautiful ethereal but deadly toxin, plays a pivotal role in the film. But too much description of it will bear the danger of being seen through by the viewer. However, as the film's protagonist is infatuated with, and even used it to complete the final unity of body death and soul redemption, the producer should give it enough respect. In this film, the box jellyfish is used as the omen and witness of the protagonist's death, and its close-up shots appear many times in Tim's gaze. What's special is that because the angle is so close, the viewer can't see Tim's own eyes - therefore, this close-up method creates an illusion for people: it seems that it is not only the box jellyfish sliding lightly in the water, Even the viewer himself is enveloped in Tim's contemplative gaze. This gave birth to a more intuitive and intense feeling, as if Tim was staring at all beings beyond the screen through the azure water light, through the translucent pearl white, and it was like in a water blue void and pale white The flow of his intertwined staring at the heavy past, his uncertain future, thus forming a strong but silent sense of confidence.
Environment: The fusion of sound, color, light and shadow
I believe that every film has its own environment, and what it does is try to make the audience into this atmosphere, making it the "nature" that the audience depends on for 120 minutes. Like the deep and expansive ocean blue in "Blue Sea and Blue Sky" that seems to overflow the screen, like the magical towers and stairs in "Harry Potter", the mysterious and ethereal soundtrack, like the lingering circle in "The Pianist at Sea" The interweaving of the sound of the harp and the cabin at night... Just imagine, when the viewers seem to feel the meaning of freedom in the Scottish bagpipes with the sound of the empty wind, they can still prevent themselves from being slammed by Wallace's last "FREEDOM" cry Shocked by the sound?
The barrenness of color sets the tone for "Seven Pounds". The protagonist Tim Thomas wears a dark suit with a serious and "confined" atmosphere from beginning to end, and in the rare scene of taking off his jacket, his white shirt is often not obvious under the light. Comes out of pure white, clean and beautiful. Whether it's trying to shout out the names of the dead in the car accident at home during the day, or going to Emily's house to repair her beloved printing machine at night, the director always uses shadows or light and shade to cover the white with a light layer. Ash dust. And the only beautiful scene in this film—the scene of Tim and Emily sitting under a tree in the field and chatting, is always smeared with some desolate wheat yellow by the shaking of the half-height wheat grass around. A man who paid for his sins with his body sat side by side in the shadow of a tall beech tree with a woman who hoped to be humble enough to be able to fly for ten hours without having to rely on a doctor, as they stared out at the sun-polished wheatgrass , will naturally make the viewer's eyes show the light and dark interweaving of despair and hope. This is in stark contrast to the scene depicted in the film Twilight: Twilight. Edward, who is a vampire in the film, could not have appeared in the sun. However, the movie specially arranged for him to bathe in the bright sunshine with his beloved human girl Bella. The bright sunlight and green space, the diamond-like light of the vampire's skin, all conveyed a positive atmosphere. Light and shadow, a simple arrangement has become the characterization of the character, the choice of fate.
However, the only exception to Tim Thomas' clothing in "Seven Pounds" is when he is forced to temporarily don the orange-red T-shirt that Emily gave him as a gift, and spend the best part of his life with him. , but it was the scene of the last night. Although this rare warm color system appears, it still has some bright colors in the soft candlelight - just like Emily's carefully selected long dress, the luster of silk reveals a faint atmosphere of love, but the overall dark golden color Still restrained and solemn. Was it meant to imply that this beautiful, loving night was just a nostalgic exception to Tim's Atonement life? It was this exception, however, that ultimately pointed to his self-sacrificing death.
In addition to light, shadow and tone, the use of sound undoubtedly makes the film appear more delicate. At the beginning of the film, a clearly audible gasp in the black scene successfully aroused the audience's emotions; and during the development of the story, the distant and peculiar telephone ringing was also repeated many times. Played a sort of "shattering" effect, pulling Tim's thoughts back to reality—whether from painful memories back to the present that seemed to spark hope, or from good bygone memories back to cruelty. The moment of self-redemption and self-destruction. And at the end of the film, there is a low but clear heartbeat that accompanies Emily towards Ezra, who has regained her sight... No, it's not so much an accompaniment, but rather a symbol of this. The bright heartbeat of life guided Emily to see Ezra again, and to look at Tim's dark eyes full of deep emotions. She smiled and wept as she was able to gaze again at the gaze that belonged to Tim, the gaze that life continued in Tim's name with a tenacious and ardent gesture. At that moment, I guess, Emily's and Tim's heartbeats really coincided.
Contradiction: The more he is nostalgic, the more painful it
is. Dedication is human nature, and selfishness is also human nature; it is human nature to make up for faults, and it is human nature to desire happiness.
Human nature is always contradictory. Therefore, to a certain extent, the contradiction has become the most extreme impact a film can bring to the audience. And the contradiction that this film shows for the viewer is undoubtedly simple - life or death. However, the reason why life and death can become the eternal theme of mankind lies not only in its inevitability, but also in its deliberate choice.
It seems that from the very beginning, the film sets Tim a step-by-step journey to death and a state of calm acceptance, because he wants to atone for the mistakes he made, and he wants to use his own body to deal with the other seven flaws. life to compensate. However, God set an encounter for him on the road to death. Emily, a woman with congenital heart disease, was the subject of Tim's investigation for donating her heart. However, her kindness, her self-awareness, and her enthusiasm for life slowly but surely knocked on Tim's heart. So when they slept together, when Emily said with a longing for life, "If, my pager rings, I get a heart, and the operation is successful, my body will not reject it. ...", when she said "If ... I still have time" with a thirst-quenching vision of the future, these deep feelings all pushed Tim to the peak of contradiction and conflict - he can Dedicate his heart to her, but he will never be able to stay with her for the rest of his life; or, he can accompany her to spend the short and beautiful final time, but he will have to be alone, facing the pain and the long years. So when he said "What if we GOT married" in a sigh-like tense, he had already made a decision.
When death is no longer the end of redemption, when life is no longer a form of atonement, it is not an easy decision.
The film takes three minutes and twenty seconds to describe the process of Tim's death. I don't know if he's ever felt comfort over his physical pain in a time long enough for a kiss? Has he ever felt remorse? His decision to die became hesitant and shaken because of Emily, and his hesitation and wavering became resolute again because of Emily. This is a reflection of the contradictory and complex human nature, and it is also the most moving moment in the film.
From Cain killing Abel, Yahweh killing the Egyptians, and Oedipus killing his father, death is one of the final resolutions of the story as the ultimate conflict. But the fight against death doesn't have to be about life. (Howard Suber) Tim Thomas may have lost his life, but he won his soul and mended seven lives that were never the same because of him. The film's compensation for him is: In the end, he did not die because of atonement, but gave his life because of love.
With this, he has transcended the so-called "victory" of having life.
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