I think "Se7en" is my favourite David Fincher film...

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2015)

I think "Se7en" is my favourite David Fincher film, and given the body of work which the director has so far produced, that was not an easy decision to make. Much as I adore the intense character study of "The Social Network", the dark mind-games of "Gone Girl" and the rich storytelling in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", I feel that "Se7en" is Fincher showing off everything he does best. It's a brooding, jet black thriller which makes you look inwardly and consider so many aspects of human nature.
In the film, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman play homicide detectives – one recently transferred to a large city, the other getting ready for retirement. On paper, their relationship is a detective cliché, but Pitt and Freeman's chemistry ensures that it transcends this. The pair start to discover a string of horrific murders, each one linked to one of the seven deadly sins, and attempt to track down the killer. They get closer and closer, and it becomes almost a game as the detectives try to prevent the next murder from occurring. There are twists and turns at every single corner up to the point where the murderer actually hands himself in, and even then you can tell that the game is barely over.
It's a film with a very clear process from the beginning, but this is not a bad thing. It takes you along so you feel like you know what's going to happen next, and then subverts your expectation right at the next step. The three lead performances are all brilliant, but the standout performance is that of Spacey, whose slow speech and constant calmness turn him into such a convincing psychopath. The greatest scene in the film is in set in a car, towards the end of the film, when Spacey explains his reasoning for committing the murders. The terrifying thing about the scene is that you can, in a way, completely understand the murderer's point, and this is cemented greatly by Spacey's performance.
As is to be expected from Fincher, the visuals in the film are incredible, and he doesn't waste a moment when he can shock. Each of the portrayals of the seven sins is as shocking as the next, and "gluttony" doesn't really kick things off that lightly. But again, Fincher's success is in disturbing his audience merely by suggestion rather than explicitly showing them anything. The murder based on "lust" isn't even described that graphically, but the very idea that it produces causes it to be one of the most difficult to watch scenes in the movie.
In "Se7en", Fincher has created a near-perfect thriller. There is not a bored moment in the entire film, and not even Gwyneth Paltrow's presence can spoil the atmosphere or enjoyment. Pitt, Freeman and Spacey complement each other perfectly, and help the film to achieve something that is actually relatively rare in movies of this genre – it actually makes your heart race.