SPOILER: An Exceptional Thriller

Rating: Null/10 (10 July 2003)

Se7en unfolds in a dark, nasty and rainy place. Two hopelessly mismatched Detectives try to overcome their differences and solve an escalating series of gruesome murders that punish the Seven Deadly Sins. Somerset (Freeman) is about to retire and Mills (Pitt) will be his youthful replacement. From the very onset of the film they resent one another and this lends a disturbing quality to the overall film which I really like. The photography is grainy and dark - this is a perfect medium with which to portray the warped, Noir-ish logic of film's plot. It also looks great. Visually, its similar to Alex Proyas' The Crow but within the world of Se7en it really can rain all the time. At least until the dazzling conclusion where the killer's terrible plan comes to light and we witness the film's crowning moment. Not since The Wicker Man has the rug been so firmly pulled from beneath a central character's feet. Like Sergeant Howie in Robin Hardy's classic chiller, Detective Mills is manipulated and used as an unwitting pawn in a game of the 'hunted leading the hunter'. I love this film: it is way, way above average for its genre.