Seven Pounds (2008)

I usually like a Will Smith movie: Pursuit of Happyness (2006)-good, Hancock (2008)-very good, Hitch (2005)-fun, Enemy of the State (1998)-very good, Men in Black I-II (1997-2002)-great fun, Ali (2001)-bruising. This has gotten so many bad reviews I really wanted to like it to prove them all wrong. Sigh. They were kinda right. Several people said they didn't know what was going on. We figured out what was going on, despite the jumps in sequence, but ... I think I blame the writing. Screenplay writer Grant Nieporte has, on his imdb credit list, 1 episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (ABC) from 2001 (I liked and watched that series) and 2 episodes of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (also ABC) (I didn't see any). That's it. Many can strike gold early, but he is not one of them. It's a big stretch from sitcom to what should have been a deep drama of redemption combined with a touching love story between Smith and Rosario Dawson (those scenes were among the movie's redeeming moments). Smith's director in Happyness, Gabriele Muccino, did the honors here. There's a reason this is not on the list of nominated movies for the year. I swear I'm not jaded! I still love movies. Just not this one.