"whats in the box"

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2000)

Se7en is a film that is gruesome without ever showing violence.It is disturbing without ever being psychological.It provides one of the best endings to a film without ever giving any evidence as to the conclusion.Andrew Kevin Walker delivers a script that is completely devoid of any kind of sentiment,which is at the same time a conforming buddy movie.Morgan Freeman delivers another performance that is so subtle you often forget that its only 'acting'.He is so disaffected by the horrors he sees,a parallel with Brad Pitt,a wet-behind-the-ears rookie(though he'd be loathe to admit it)who is so repulsed by the travesties the two men encounter,that his life is destroyed by his inability to cope with it.Se7en rarely shows graphic violence,instead we are treated to the scenes that follow,the bloody messes and repulsively realistic cadavers-but it still leaves a trace of bile in your throat,and a hollow feeling in your stomach that stays with you for a few days.Andrew Kevin Walker though,is surely messed in the head,for only a mentalist could dream up such horiffic ways to go as to be force-fed spaghetti till you burst,or to be f***ed by a guy with a huge knife on his Johnson.The climax of the film is the high point,both unexpected and perfectly suited to wiping away the confident feeling of resolution that Somerset and Mills had gained,With Kevin Spacey delivering a short performance that pretty much burns a hole in the screen,his cool,restrained psychosis perfectly suited to a killer who would go to such lengths as slicing off the ends of his fingers to avoid leaving fingerprints,and Spacey delivers his lines with such icy assuredness,that his performance,though he only has about ten minutes screen time,is the part that everybody remembers.David Fincher's direction is stylistic and atmospheric,every scene is played out in darkness,except for the scenes with Gwyneth Paltrow,who is the source of light for both men,as they are increasingly drawn into the back alley worlds of darkness.