Playing for Keeps

When you have the name Gabriele Muccino associated with your movie, you have to expect a lot of – and I really mean it when I say it – A LOT OF TEARS. He has that innate capability to build in moments that are poignant and force your lachrymal glands into overtime action. And if you don’t believe me then you have to watch Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds.

But, if you walk into the screen expecting a tear jerker but intense movie like what you have seen Muccino make in the past – you are in for one hell of a shock. Playing for Keeps has only some amounts of background music that shows some semblance of his previous work. If anything, PFK, looks more like Nancy Myers has somehow found her way into Muccino’s mind.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am a huge Nancy Myers fan. But Muccino is expected to get some really intense and gut wrenching scenes into the movie. He is supposed to make you think about stuff. He is supposed to make you debate about right and wrong. Not trail the life of an erstwhile soccer player who is separated from his wife and kid and is now looking at some kind of redemption by trying to get back with them.

George Dryer (Gerard Butler) is our victim of a failed marriage. A famous soccer star in from Scotland in his hey days, his relationship with the love of his life – Stacie (Jessica Biel) – has always been strained thanks to his priorities being slightly warped. It has nothing to do with the fact that Stacie comes from across the Atlantic. However, when the marriage fails, George makes the arduous trip across the Herring Pond to do the right thing – finally.

He tries his hand at sports-casting without success. And after watching his son Lewis’ (Noah Lomax) soccer coach teaching the wrong things, he steps in to be the school soccer coach. Of course, doing that comes with its benefits (read – 3 soccer moms). Denise (Catherine Zeta Jones), Patti (Uma Thurma) & Barb (Judy Greer) are either divorced or cheating on husbands with guess who – George!!! – I thought you would never guess.

By now, you are sure that this is anything but a Muccino movie right? So you will agree with the disappointment that I faced. However, to its credit, it is only the story that is not Muccino. Everything else is. I am also convinced that if there is a serious romance movie that you need a lead actor for then Gerard Butler has to be your man. No one else can get the male emotions of being in love better than Butler. And of course it is an added benefit for you women that he is eye candy. 6 on 10. Decent watch. But wait for the DVD.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3070338073/

Seven Pounds

There is a terminal heart patient who answers to the call of Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson). She runs a pressed wedding card business – the one that used to be run in the days of old. The one which had to be worked upon manually to set the print or the one that is semi automatic. Machines which are over 50 years old at least. She is weak but by her own claim – and I must agree to it – used to be – unauditably hot.

Then there is a a blind man who is called Ezra (Woody Harrelson). He works at a call centre for a meat packing business but is a vegan by choice and a virgin by chance. Quite a weird combination right? And an unfortunate combination which one has to accept I guess. He likes the local waitress at a café a lot but has never gotten around to tell her that in as many words. Just doesn’t have the courage.

There is a middle aged woman who has two children – a boy and a girl. She is called Connie Tepos (Elpidia Carrillo). She is a Spanish immigrant – a legal one thought. Divorced. Her current boyfriend is a no good person. He beats her up quite often. And despite the best efforts of people close to her, she refuses to report it to the cops and get her boyfriend behind bars. Sigh. The vagaries of the female mind.

What connects these three to Ben (Will Smith) who seems to be a man on the verge of a suicide and has a past that keeps flashing through his head? Is it the car crash which seems to be a fatal one? One that obviously involving 7 people whose names he keeps calling out in absolute angst. Ben visits each one of these people, representing the Internal Revenue Services, and tries to help them in some way or the other. Connie Tepos gets his house. Emily gets a relief for her tax payments. And Ezra gets a gentle push towards that waitress of his after receiving a very rude earful from Ben.

Written by Grant Nieporte, Seven Pounds is the kind of movie I should have seen at the time of release itself. And I have no clue to how I missed it. The screenplay is written extremely well to figure out the story only towards the end. While one gets reasonable clues as regards the past, one doesn’t really get clarity on the reason for Ben’s actions till the very end. The editing by Hughes Winborne and the music by Angelo Milli create an extremely haunting aura around the movie.

Full credit to director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) for giving us another poignant and heart wrenching story that has been executed to near perfection. But be forewarned that Seven Pounds could result in a lot of exercise for the lachrymal glands. That one of the best actors of our time – Will Smith – leads the cast is just an added reason to watch the movie. I have never seen Woody Harrelson in such a helpless role ever in the recent or distant past. Everyone in the cast seems to have given the movie a 100%. Even the poor Hotel owner who has to endure Ben’s nuances and the horse (read great Dane) that Ben gets along with him for a day or 2 when Emily is at the hospital. Seven Pounds easily makes the cut to anyone’s must watch list. 7.5 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/