Se7en - Mind Blowingly Great!

Spoilers Ahead

What's in the box?!

Se7en is a movie I have heard a few great things about but barely knew anything about. All I knew was that it was a crime/thriller that my dad said was one of, if not the most disturbing movie he'd ever seen. I had people reference the ending as well, only saying it was incredible. All that made me very excited to see this. Plus the reviews were solid, and we had David Fincher directing, and the stars were Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman which is always a plus. That was basically my mindset going into watching Se7en.

Now having all that been said, I thought <i>Se7en<i> was absolutely fantastic! This is one of those movies where I can't find anything at all to nitpick. The acting is fantastic with two amazing performances by Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey (which isn't a spoiler anymore because of the credits list). David Fincher did a fantastic job with the direction of the film and the script by Andrew Kevin Walker is very tight and full of twists and turns. I haven't stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it three days ago.

Let's start with the acting. I came into this thinking of it as a Brad Pitt movie with Morgan Freeman being the supporting player. After seeing the movie I think they both share this movie. In some ways, I think Morgan Freeman is even better than Pitt which I wouldn't say to a lot of actors. Morgan Freeman has been an actor I've always liked ever since I saw him in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. I haven't seen him give a performance where I thought: Hand this man his Oscar! In Se7en it's another case. I'm going to talk about how this movie got snubbed at The Oscars later in this review but I do want to mention quickly that Freeman should have at least been nominated for best actor that year. Nic Cage won that year for Leaving Los Vegas which I haven't seen but I just don't see Nic Cage being on Freeman's level. Anyway, back to Freeman's performance. He's great. Freeman plays it a bit more subtle than Pitt but he's just so great. He plays the tired detective so well. It helps that his character is written really well. It feels like he is in control of the situation even though he's expressed his weariness of living in this horrible city. It's by far my favorite performance from Freeman. I think it's no surprise that Brad Pitt is great in this. Mills isn't perfect but we get that he's a good guy who loves his wife and of course his dogs. Going in I thought Pitt would have been playing a somewhat Sherlock Holmes type of character that would know everything and be a genius. He's not though. After watching the movie, I listened to other podcasts and saw some other people's thoughts on the movie. I've heard people call Mills a bumbling idiot. I strongly disagree with this assessment. Mills is definitely not as clever or intelligent as Somerfield and he isn't even that great in the field. After all, he got his butt kicked by Kevin Spacey. (Which is a great chase scene.) However, he makes some good points on Somerfield's character and why he's leaving. I think an idiot would have made a lot more mistakes in the movie. Mills is a good guy and I think he can definitely hold his own even though he isn't the best detective in the force. Of course, Brad Pitt is amazing as Mills and adds a lot to this character. It probably isn't my favorite Pitt performance though. Not that he does anything wrong he just does even better later on with Inglorious Basterds and Moneyball which I think is one of his best performances that aren't looked at enough. He's great in this though and I still think he should have got nominated as well, even though I think Freeman was a little better. Then we have Kevin Spacey who might be the best of the three in some ways. He is so creepy in this movie. I think it makes it even more creepy knowing what would later be revealed about him. Fincher and Walker do such a great job at creating who I believe to be one of the best villains and certainly the best serial killer of all time. His true introduction into the movie I thought was spectacular when he comes to the detectives with his hands up with blood all over him. Spacey commands the screen every time he's on-screen. I'll get into his plot later but I think it's incredibly well-written interesting and blood-curdling. This is definitely going to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Noah's. It may even win. There's so much more to dissect with his character that I'm not going to get into but John Doe is well written and a great character to delve into and talk about. Gwyenth Pathtrow is quite good as well. This is definitely my favorite performance from her that I've seen so far. The scene with her and Morgan Freeman at the diner is fantastic and she's great in that scene. 

David Fincher blew me away with the direction of the movie and a lot of that goes to the way this movie feels. The script by Andrew Kevin Walker was also fantastic and practically flawless. It has honestly become one of my favorite scripts of all time. This unnamed town feels like it's one of the worst places on earth. It may not be, but that is how Fincher makes it feel. I think it has an even better mood-setting and a better environment than Fargo which is one of the templates for creating an environment and feel. From the moment we see the first kill of the movie, Gluttony, there is a disturbing and unsettling feel the movie has for the rest of its runtime. Each kill feels more horrific than the last except for Greed. Sloth is probably the most disturbing but there was something about Lust that just made me feel so gross inside. The stole build-up to John Doe is brilliant. The reveal that he was the photographer blew me away. The score by Howard Shore is great as well. The score he did for The Silence of the Lambs was great and this was great as well. Apparently, he likes to make scores for disturbing movies. 

Yeah, I'm devoting a whole paragraph to the final thirty minutes of this movie. It's probably the best thirty minutes in a movie I've ever seen, just as far as thirty minutes straight in a movie. It starts so great with John Doe walking in with his hands up and shouting out that iconic line: "Detective! You're looking for me! I got chills up my spine when that happened. Then we just cut to him steeping tea and that somehow makes it even more creepy. The car ride, which everyone whose seen this movie knows what I'm talking about, is fantastic. It's brilliant. Pitt and Spacey are so brilliant in the scene. They've captured John Doe but it feels like we know as much about him as we did in the beginning and Spacey, giving an incredible performance and stealing the show, is giving a great speech about why he did this. I don't think we ever agree with why he did this but his motives are creepily understandable. We see Pitt struggle to keep control of the situation and also saying some great lines. Spacey is who we're looking at though. It's the best car ride ever. Then we have the box, which is incredible obviously since it's so iconic! It's perfect, which isn't a word I've used a lot on Letterboxd. Maybe this is just me but when Morgan Freeman was walking up to that box I had this dark sense of dread in my stomach that it was going to be Gwyneth Pathrow's head in that box. That didn't take the shock effect out of the scene though. The acting is great (which I have already said multiple times in this review) especially Brad Pitt. Just his facial expressions throughout the scene are so great. Freeman is also fantastic as well. He's had this level of control the whole film but he doesn't in this scene. He's just a helpless bystander to this madness in front of him. Freeman is fantastic when he's trying to defuse the situation. It's brilliant! I saw this movie with my dad, and when we got the kill for Lust, I told him that was probably the most disturbing thing I'd ever seen. He responded by telling me: Wait till you see the ending. That definitely put another level of expectations for the ending and it met those fairly high expectations and did even more. It's the best thirty minutes of maybe any movie. 

So, this movie got snubbed. It did get a nomination for best editing and the editing is great. There isn't much action yet the movie moves fast. However, this should've been nominated for so many other things. Fincher should've been nominated for Best Director, Freeman and Pitt should've been nominated, it should have been nominated for Best Writing by Andrew Kevin Walker, Best Score by Howard Shore, and it definitely should've been nominated for Best Picture. A part of me thinks the Academy shouldn't even exist after this, it's just that bad. 

I haven't stopped thinking about Seven since I saw it. Just listening to the audio of a scene gives me goosebumps. The movie exceeds every category I think a movie can have and is one of the best in each. The acting, directing, writing, and score are all incredible. What a great movie to call your 1,000th film! It's movies like this that make me glad to review movies. Since seeing this movie for the first time I've gone on to see it two more times and it's become one of my all-time favorite movies. If you haven't seen this movie I'm honestly not sure what you're doing. SEE IT!

Strong strong recommend

10/10

Se7en (Official Trailer)