Wonderful movie, just one notch short of a classic.

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 1999)

Se7en is a very excellent movie. The cinematography is outstanding, and combined with the production design it creates an extremely dark and bleak village (I don't believe they identified it). The screenplay is intelligently written, the direction is well done also. Though Brad Pitt, who to this date I have seen him act well only once (12 Monkeys), is not very convincing as detective David Mills, it doesn't really matter. Morgan Freeman is incredible as always, playing his calm, cool and wise character he has mastered in every way. Kevin Spacey is breathtaking in his small but pivotal role. He does his best supporting work ever here, he was only better in The Usual Suspects, and possibly L.A. Confidential.
The film starts out on a crime scene, where we are introduced to detective Mills (Pitt) and Somerset (Freeman). They talk, and we learn that Mills is new in the force, and that Somerset is a veteran that is retiring within the week. They don't get along well, and when they find a mysterious murder (an overweight man was forced to eat spaghetti until he burst, and the word gluttony is found written in grease on the wall) Somerset suggests he be moved to a different case as well as Mills. This is denied, of course. The 2 find a couple other murders with words written bizzarely on the walls or the floor, and they deduce that the murders are linked to a serial killer who kills according to the seven deadly sins. Though I saw the censored version on ABC and probably didn't get the full effect of the movie, I still think I have a pretty good idea of the movie's quality. It's brilliant. So then why is this movie only a 3 out of 4? There are missing links to the story, and sometimes there is too much relying on suspension of belief. However, you must see this movie, if not just for the last 20 minutes where we finally meet John Doe, the man behind the killings who to the amazement of Mills and Somerset hands himself in and volunteers to give a full signed confession to all of the crimes. The catch? To take Mills and Somerset, alone, to the scenes of the last 2 "killings".......