A number worth thinking about....

Rating: 8/10 (8 May 2000)

A movie as dark, disturbing and heavily wrought with despair as "Se7en" can hardly be called entertainment. This is a motion-picture statement. And not an encouraging one. But a statement all the same.
Not to say that it's a bad movie. Quite the opposite.
In a tale where a retiring police detective (Freeman) takes one last case along with his replacement (Pitt), only to find that their investigation leads them down through a very First Testament eye-for-an-eye lesson in the seven deadly sins, you cannot expect a merry romp down the yellow brick road.
As the victims have all been felled by such vices as gluttony, vanity, sloth, sex and such, Freeman and Pitt slowly realize that they are dealing not only with a sicko but one who means to follow his lesson on to the bitter end.
And that's it. I won't tell another bit of the plot; this is the kind of movie that has to be witnessed first-hand. I'll be the first to admit that it's definitely not a movie for anybody. Certainly most people will be turned off almost immediately by the gore and downbeat intensity of the whole situation. As Freeman so lucidly observes, "This isn't going to have a happy ending." - well, how could it?
Freeman is, of course, a sound center to the film and without him as a grounding wire, the whole film would have suffered through its grunge and blood and rainy days and nights. Much has been said of Pitt's ineffectual stance in his role, but I think that's the whole point: he's the common man who just sees this killer as another wacko to lock up. His eventual transformation is almost un-noticeable as he turns from a deadened, I've-seen-it-all type into someone who can't quite believe that such debased evil actually exists until.. well, that would be telling; suffice it to say that it's gradual and sudden all at once - and makes perfect sense, in context.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pitt's wife about as well as can be expected under the circumstances. R. Lee Ermey plays a more sedate version of the drill sergeant he made so vivid in "Full Metal Jacket". And as for John Doe... it's a credit to his performance that he makes himself so eerily believable as someone who believes this is the only way to make people listen to what he has to say. And, in some sick way, he may be right.
But the people aren't the stars here, and neither is Fincher's dark, foreboding direction - it's the story and where it leads to, it's the talks you'll have afterwards about what happens at the end, it's about sin and death and what really has to be done to make some people aware of what sin is around them and how dead we've all become towards it. Maybe "Se7en" is more about how we react to the eventual lesson taught and how it's presented than the actors, the gore and the literary quotes.
If you can stomach the gore and your heart can take some pretty wrenching scenes, this may be a movie for you to watch, think about and, possibly, learn from. I watched it and, myself, learned a pretty important lesson. Of course, every movie teaches its own different lesson to different people. See "Se7en" yourself and draw your own conclusion.
Eight stars for "Se7en". Powerful: yes. Disturbing: definitely. Unforgettable: absolutely.