"This isn't going to have a happy ending."

Rating: 9/10 (15 September 2007)

After years of experiencing dull, formulaic, clichèd so-called thrillers, it's always satisfying when a genuinely great movie comes along. I have absolutely no hesitation in proclaiming 'Se7en' to be such a film, with director David Fincher  after achieving a somewhat mixed result in his cinematic debut, 'Alien³'  firmly proclaiming his place as one of the 1990's most promising new talents. It's somewhat surprising that the movie had managed to elude me for so long, since I'd been wanting to see it for a while, and it was only last week that I managed to get my hands on a DVD copy. And so, without further ado, I invited over a friend, who has an equal partiality towards good thrillers, and enthusiastically promised him one of the best of its decade. 'Se7en' didn't disappoint.
The film takes place in a dark, gritty, unnamed metropolis, where it is always raining and danger looms ominously from every alleyway. Reserved and hardened Detective Lt. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) has seen it all in his lifetime, and is finally preparing to retire to the country, away from the madness of the city. His replacement, impulsive Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt), has transferred here at his own request, and is eager to make his mark, even though his career choice could be harming the wellbeing of his lonely and vulnerable wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow). Both detectives are soon drawn into the case of a serial killer, John Doe, who is ritualistically murdering his victims according to the Seven Deadly Sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath. As the murders begin piling up, the two detectives' investigation becomes an obsession, and the inevitable outcome will drastically change the lives of both. Throughout the film, Brad Pitt provides most of the comic relief, none of which detracts at all from the horrors we are witnessing on screen.
David Fincher has a unique visual style that is simply thrilling to watch. Despite the thematically dark tone of the story, the film itself is positively brimming with invigorating and vibrantly-contrasted colour and lighting. The graphic murder scenes appear to splash out of the screen, before our very eyes, enhancing the feelings of dread and repulsion that accompany John Doe's horrific acts of murder. The rich, highly-stylised use of colour also helps create a memorable atmosphere of sheer foreboding; the imagery is sure to stay with you for many years to come. Even as 'Se7en' abandons the gritty setting of the city for the final act  shifting the action to a starkly-lit open field beside a trail of electric power-lines  the film loses none of its potency, the isolation of the climactic arena seemingly leaving our main protagonists even more helpless and vulnerable than before.
Our villain is anonymously titled John Doe, and is played with delightful creepiness by Kevin Spacey, who only agreed to the part under the condition that he remain unbilled in the promotion and opening credits of the film. Unlike your typical serial killer, John Doe is not a crazy, impulsive and stupid mad-man, but something rather more terrifying: he is intelligent, patient and methodical. In one particularly ghastly crime, he keeps a convicted drug dealer chained to his bed for an entire year, removing his hands and his tongue, and regularly paying his rent so as to not arouse any suspicions. John Doe's entire life has been dedicated to Mankind's obsession with committing sin, and, through orchestrating his crimes, he wishes to preach to the society of their transgressions. John Doe, rather uniquely, is given a large portion of the film's final half-hour, and so he becomes a character that we come to know very well, as opposed to the half-constructed serial killers who usually turn up in the final five minutes only to be shot by the hero. Spacey is very good in the role, though I can't help but feel that his performance would have been even more effective had I not been familiar with much of his later film work.
The most exciting scene in the film is undoubtedly the hectic foot-chase that ensues when John Doe arrives home to his apartment, only to find Detectives Somerset and Mills waiting patiently outside his door. However, the film's climax is also well worth mentioning: though many interpretations have been floating around, my view is that the final two victims are John Doe himself ("Envy") and David Mills ("Wrath"). In order to prevent himself from being labeled a hypocrite, as Mills had suggested during the car-ride, Doe allowed his own deadly sin - envy - to result in the death of Tracy, and so enticed Mills to shoot him, simultaneously becoming the sixth victim and prompting Mills to commit the seventh sin. Some have argued that, since Mills didn't die, he can't be perceived as one of Doe's victims, but is being left alive in these circumstances perhaps even a more diabolical punishment?