THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509230032
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
SEE ``SEVEN'' with someone you know, and trust. Afterward, you may well need a hug. You may, in fact, need help leaving the theater.
``Seven'' is the scariest film since ``Silence of the Lambs'' but without as much originality. It's a genuinely disturbing movie that takes familiar cliches (the buddy-cop plot) and deceives us into thinking they are new. It's gory. It's gritty. In spite of its occasional lapses, it's intelligent.
The title has nothing to do with luck, dwarves or magnificent samurai. It stands for the seven deadly sins. Count among them gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and wrath. You'll be wishing there were fewer. Somewhere in a murky urban jungle an ultra-sick serial killer has vowed to kill one person who represents each of the seven deadly sins.
A model has her nose cut off to spite her face. A fatty dies in his own obesity. A man is forced (as in Shakespeare's ``Merchant of Venice'') to cut off a pound of flesh.
The violence is mostly offscreen. What we see is the aftermath.
Most of all, we see the effect of these heinous crimes upon two policemen who investigate them - a hothead, gung-ho youngster, played with noticeably levity by the greatly improving Brad Pitt, and a 34-year veteran, played with great wisdom and restraint by Morgan Freeman (Oscar nominee for ``Driving Miss Daisy'' and ``The Shawshank Redemption'').
The film's visual style is impressive. It is so dark that we cry for light. It seems that it rains most of the time in this city, and the rain always reflects, with great threat, off the streets.
Gwyneth Paltrow turns in a particularly sensitive and sunny performance as Pitt's concerned wife. In a scene in which she goes to Freeman in an effort to explain her husband's failings, she is vulnerable and likable in a way that gives us a much-needed respite from all the darkness. She is destined to be a major star.
The killer is identified fairly early in the film, which leaves us to wonder where we're going for the rest of the movie. This, after all, is not a whodunit but a whydunit and ``How could it have been avoided?'' A fine actor, who is likely to be Oscar-nominated for another film this year, has an unbilled role that won't be identified here. But you can count on his being there.
The killer here, in yet-another nod to Hannibal Lecter, has a notable knowledge of Dante, Chaucer and Milton, moreso than Agatha Christie.
Not until the film's final moments does it finally move out into the sunshine. By then we're wrung out, but there is no mercy. This film has one of the more agonizing final 20 minutes in recent history.
All the clues are honest ones. Almost every scene works. There is a nifty chase (in which actor Pitt was injured during filming). For the most part, though, the film sustains its longish running time with intelligent pacing and visual style. You'll gradually figure out where you're going, and you won't want to go.
``Seven'' is tough to take, in the most harrowing way. It is one thriller that delivers the goods. MOVIE REVIEW
``Seven''
Cast: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Roundtree
MPAA rating: R (gory aftermath of violent murders, genuinely disturbing)
Mal's rating: Three and 1/2 stars
Locations: Chesapeake Square, Greenbrier in Chesapeake; Janaf, Main Gate in Norfolk; Columbus, Kemps River, Lynnhaven Mall, Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach by CNB