Se7en

Firstly, I have to mention Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Both of their performances were outstanding to me, they work really well as a duo and their dynamic, not only performance wise, but also the writing of their respective characters are great and parallel each other well. Detective David Mills moves in to the city, in an apartment sold to them by some asshole real estate agent, who didn’t really care to mention the fact that a subway causes vibrations every now and then. Smart tactic, though very unethical. Yet, David, despite not taking the humiliating laughter by his wife and detective partner all too well, doesn’t seem to be exactly bothered by it. David doesn’t necessarily see the good in people, but his youthful optimism, to move to this rotten city and try to better it is a nice contrast to his partner, Somerset, who sees that optimism rather as David being naive. Somerset is looking to quit this job, try to settle down in a farm, nothing really left to change in this hopeless, abysmal place of crime and murder.  The setting is what makes the dynamic work so well. David Fincher plays with the biblical concept of original sin to create his characters and the environment, it is a nihilistic approach on the world, the rotten city is never named, the rain never ends. Not a place to be a teacher, Tracy thinks. Nor a place to raise a child. All humans inherit a deadly sin, and Kevin Spacey’s character, John Doe, is the one that takes the role of God, the role to punish those forsaken ones. Or at least, that’s what he wants the detectives to believe.  I have to say, Kevin Spacey does do an incredible job at portraying the character of John Doe. The trio made those last 20 minutes of the movie, and without diminishing the rest of it, I’d even say it carries the film and gives it the status that it has today. The twist with the box and Doe’s last two victims are genius, I mean, quite obvious as well, but a twist being obvious never degrades from it’s quality in my opinion. Though, we only spend the mere 3rd act with the character and never have his motives be fleshed out other than him being envious of David, an optimist, who lives a perfectly normal life, whom he drives to the last sin, which is wrath, ending up winning the clash of ideologies both of the characters previously had, proving that everyone does indeed sin, by giving promising detective the final deadly sin of Wrath. This is all great, again, nihilistic, but not poorly executed. But I think this character could have played a greater part in the film. I have to compare this to Ledger’s Joker, who tries to prove the same point as John Doe does, but is a character who is much more fleshed out, despite also not having a backstory. It does feel like Doe’s only motive is his obsession with the original sin.  I loved this film, and I think this is by far Fincher’s best work. There are still some elements of his directing style that I don’t like, the chase scene in front of Doe’s apartment for example reminds of Fincher’s insanely obnoxious sensationalism, but it’s definitely better than in Fight Club. Great film overall.