4/5 stars
Ah, the holidays are here at last! It’s fair game to break out the smooth Christmas jazz and footie pajamas. With some luck, the snow will gently fall upon the unsightly tilled dirt that is lower campus. UW-Eau Claire will be beautiful again!
Oh, you are not interested in a serene and cliché evening?
Try “Se7en” instead. Director David Fincher’s movie is en route to being a seminal classic for creepy movies about murders and justice and happens to be this week’s UAC Campus Film Series installment.
Let me break down “Se7en” (also known as “Seven”): William R. Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a long-time detective, pairs up with David Mills (Brad Pitt). The two look into a series of murders that they believe relate to the seven deadly sins.
A quick mini lesson in Biblical history: the seven deadly sins are lust, wrath, gluttony, sloth (which means being lazy, but sloth sounds cooler!), envy, pride and greed. Each of them is traditionally considered a fundamentally awful attribute to have or commit. For further information, please visit “The Inferno” by Dante Alighieri.
Anyways, we are dealing with a nasty serial killer here known as John Doe.
A serial killer? Cue the dramatic music!
Well, here’s the thing. Somerset and Mills don’t really pick this “serial killer” part up until shortly after encountering a gluttonous crime scene, the murder of an attorney (greed!), and a “lazy” tortured criminal. That’s when they realize the pattern and its plan.
For the remainder of the movie, the other sins make their way into murders – with the last of them, wrath, happening in a way that I can promise you won’t call.
With a starring cast of Pitt, Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow, the audience will be left with solid all-around performances from the leading group. The chemistry between Pitt and Freeman is sharp, and Paltrow offers a surprisingly emotional and sensitive performance amongst a gritty backdrop.
And I won’t deny that I have a lot of respect for its director, David Fincher.
With other films to his name such as “Fight Club,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Social Network,” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” it comes as no surprise that Fincher is now the respected director he is today — he kept his precision quality and tension throughout “Se7en.”
Overall, I would highly recommend this movie. Albeit, it’s not for everyone (the faint of heart and stomach may want to stay away or bring a snuggle-buddy with), but if you can handle a bit of plot twisting and originality in your screenplay, go for it. I do wish that some parts had been eliminated throughout — such as the whole pregnancy subplot in there — but it was necessary to do so.
“Se7en” will screen this upcoming weekend in the Woodland Theater in Davies. Times and dates are Friday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. Admission is free with your Blugold ID.
So forget the snow, holiday cheer and cookies — allow yourself a hearty helping of mind screw before your cheer is spoiled by bad sweaters and annoying relatives!
