Se7en

From David Fincher, Se7en is a compelling and brilliant postmodern film noir. It is grim and disturbing but it is also very intelligent and daring. What I did love about Se7en especially is that it is incredibly stylish, beautiful dark cinematography and dazzling landscapes really do add to the atmosphere. Very little of the murders are shown but we are appalled and shocked by what we hear of them, the action is tense and the climax is shattering. There is also an intelligent screenplay, a clever plot telling of a vicious serial killer who murders his victims in a gruesome way to atone for the sins(gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath)he deems them to have committed and excellent direction. The acting is also superb, Morgan Freeman gives another brilliant performance as the disillusioned detective and Brad Pitt is great as Mills in a more meatier role than he has ever done. Gwyneth Paltrow makes a small yet significant appearance as Mill's uneasy wife, while Kevin Spacey superbly delivers equally superb dialogue as John Doe despite the fact he isn't in the film much. Overall, a brilliant film, with adept performances, direction, style and ambition. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Seldom does a film elucidate the culpability of our culture,of our society, in the mayhem and madness we often find in everyday life. According to Se7en, our culture is drifting through darkness. The mouthpiece for this thematic undercurrent is Somerset, a literate man who also happens to be a detective, a man who can read a clue ("This isn't going to be a happy ending") or Dante's Inferno with equal aplomb. He even provides the film's final thematic statement with a quote from Hemingway. His quirkiness, perhaps the outgrowth of a brilliant mind, is no worse than that of any prophet or seer of old, those harbingers of Biblical insight whom others always find kooky and offbeat. He is not well loved for his cynical, pessimistic outlook (such that his consuming motivation is to retire and get out of town). However, by the end it becomes clear that it is Somerset who sees our dark world with the prophet's particular clarity. (It is left to his partner Mills to find this out the hard way).

Working on us to reinforce this world as Somerset sees it is the film's astounding mise-en-scene, a disturbing film-noir setting developed by director David Fincher and cinematographer Darius Khondji. Flashlights barely illuminate the slimy walls of the roach-infested tenement of one victim and the dark bedroom of another. Rain pours down in buckets. Bird's-eye-view shots of downtown (the city is never named- a generic, everyman's kind of place) show dingy, sooty rooftops and grimy streets. Only the film's closing scene is in bright sunlight, which by then only serves as ironic counterpoint to what we see happening.

This is Somerset's vision; both inhabited and described by him. He finds a surprising fellow traveler in, not his partner, but the elusive killer John Doe. Doe shares the vision and provides an unsettling echo to the rumblings and teachings of Somerset. If one looks at life through the Somerset lens, one must admit that John Doe has a valid point. He and Somerset have arrived at the same conclusion, the difference between them being how they have responded. (Somerset longs to escape to some otherworldly realm in the country. Doe has taken action.)

Though gripping and fast moving, this is not an action film. It holds our interest through the workings of horror and mystery: a stark, film-noir detective piece. Except for one tense pursuit through halls and alleys in pouring rain, as well as the bit of ending action, there is surprisingly little violence. We see each murder, save two, after the fact, as a crime scene. This only makes the final act that much more suspenseful.

This is a very tight film. Elements within: dialogue, actions, lighting, setting, all of these tend to reinforce one another to paint a solid picture. It is a perverse logic that makes the final and seventh sin complete perfectly the circle of events begun with the first.

`Days from retirement' Detective Somerset is teamed with new-to-the-city Detective Mills to investigate a murder that quickly becomes a series. Somerset realises that the killer must be smart and is using classic literature to model his killings on the seven deadly sins, however Mills finds to hard to see him as anything other than a crazy man. With the killer close to completing his work, Mills and Somerset begin to close in on him. However nothing is as it seems in a dark depressing city full of moral degradation and apathy.

When David Fincher came onto the scene with his debut feature Alien3 the world only paused to scorn a film that didn't fit in with the Alien franchise. Yes it wasn't a great film – but I loved the sense of mood, the dark the tension in the shadows that Fincher created. Years later we have Se7en, Fight Club, The Game, and at people are getting Fincher!

Se7en was his major break through – where his dark visions also reaped box-office gold. The story doesn't sound like much – mismatched partners (one young, cocky and reckless – the other a few days from retirement) go after a serial killer who is carrying out a series of twisted murders…..it sounds like Lethal Weapon meets a straight to video thriller. But happily it rises above that by so much it's unbelievable….it certainly shows how a story put in good hands can work out. From the start we are entombed in mood – the city where it always rains, the uncaring people etc. The we begin to find murders – but Fincher doesn't show us the murders, he lets us see the aftermath in the shadows and lets us imagine the rest – Genius!

What you don't see is more gory than what you do. Meanwhile the tension is cranked up to fever pitch as the race to catch the killer is accelerated. When we meet the killer, the film just gets better…right up to an ending that is simply one of the most logical, emotional and gripping endings I've ever seen. I promise you'll leave the cinema shell shocked.

Freeman is excellent as Somerset – so good that it's a role he's tried to do again in `Kiss the girls' etc. But here he is the perfect foil for both Mills and the killer. Brad Pitt is also superb....he isn't allowed to trade on his looks here and does very well in a film that has little opportunity for him to pander to his female fans – he spends a lot of it looking beaten up. Paltrow is OK with what she has – but this isn't really a film that focuses on female roles. R. Lee Ermey is as good as ever and it's a sign of how good the cast is that actors of the stature of Charles Dutton and John C McGinley are basically in roles that barely count as cameos.

However the best performance is from Kevin Spacey in the years before he became an Oscar lovie and stopped doing bad guys or dark characters. He is only on screen for a small portion of the film but his dialogue is superb and he delivers it faultlessly. In the scene where he shares a car ride with Mills and Somerset you literally hang on his every word. However alongside Spacey Fincher stands triumphant with his dark vision given the perfect story and perfect actors.

At heart this is a cop thriller – but excellent performances, excellent mood and a moral lesson from an excellent Spacey make this quite simply the most jaw-droppingly excellent thriller of the 1990's.

A retiring Detective and a young rookie are hunting down a serial killer, a killer with a dark MO, murdering his victims using the seven deadly sins.

As I watch this, it's coming up to its thirtieth anniversary, and it's as fresh now as it was back in 1995, it's an intensely macabre take, crimes that are infinitely macabre and depraved, and intensely twisted.

The combination of Freeman and Pitt is incredible, they work immensely well together, we have the fresh zest of Mills, and the unshakable, but battle weary Somerset. Paltrow and Spacey are excellent in support.

Two hours flashed past, there is no lull, no moment to switch off and boil the kettle, the intensity is immediate, the pacing designed to keep you glued.

I have always thought there is a shade of Alfred Hitchcock about this movie, such is the intelligence of the plot.

Very good visuals, the macabre and gruesome bodies look shocking still, nothing is spared or hidden away.

10/10.

Detective Lt. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is about to retire. He is teamed up with a young new detective David Mills (Brad Pitt). Together they try to find a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his M.O. Meanwhile Mills' wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) fears for her husband's life and is very depressed.

Dark and depressing but just fascinating. Director David Fincher shots the entire film in dim light and shoves the victims mutilated bodies in our face. The grimness of the tone wears you down but that's appropriate considering the subject matter. No humor either. It all leads to a truly harrowing ending. There was supposed to be a happy ending but they (wisely) chose not to do it. Freeman and Pitt work very well together and both give excellent performances. I even thought Paltrow (who I hate) was good! Kevin Spacey is very good too in a small role.

If you have trouble with blood, gore and disturbing subject matter stay far away from this movie. But if you can handle that, watch this one. It's depressing and unpleasant but riveting.