"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part."
I watched Se7en (1995) last week and finally understood why it was a cult hit; acknowledged to be one of director David Fincher's masterpieces. Starring Morgan Freeman as a measured older detective about to retire, and Brad Pitt as the brash young cop about to replace him, Se7en is a study of humanity and the darkness that is integral to our existence. The plot revolves around the two aforementioned detectives searching for a serial killer who carries out murders in the theme of the seven deadly sins, hence the film's title.
I love this film because I believe it to be an intelligent thriller - something that is hard to come by these days. Touching on subjects such as death and morality, the script written by Andrew Kevin Walker never patronizes the audience and instead engages it. The acts of violence and murders are never shown, also allowing what is unseen and unknown to scare us, with the evidence and aftermath of the crime scene prompting our imaginations to go wild. Personally, I find such implicit direction to be preferable to the bloodbaths of most R-rated thrillers these days, where the prevalence of barbarity is currently banal, contrived and lacking the shock factor.
This film is also a winner to me because of the lighting, the set design and the make-up. Set in a grimy unnamed city that could be inspired by New York, Fincher uses a monotonous industrial palette made of grey and blue hues to communicate the sense of dread, fear and danger that pervades throughout the film. Buildings are shown to be dark, run-down and crumbling, perhaps paralleling the disintegration of the world's morality - one of the overarching themes of this movie. Thirdly, the make-up is a feat in itself, with the corpses from each murder looking like extras off the set of The Walking Dead, something both macabre yet fascinating. When the three factors cited above come together along with Howard Shore's effective and chilling score, the result is movie magic. Take a look for yourselves.
Look at these powerful mise-en-scenes, I know they will definitely stay with me for a long time.
Finally, the last factor as to why this movie works is due to the acting. Morgan Freeman brings great gravitas and wisdom to his role, with his character forever giving the vibe that he is "the smartest guy in the room" (yes I ripped this quote off Now You See Me, a terrible convoluted mess of a movie that Freeman also starred in, acting in a role he could ace in his sleep). He owned his role as a world-weary detective that has seen and felt too much in his lifetime, projecting both grace and regret. Brad Pitt admittedly and understandably was then still unable to attain the finesse of Freeman in his performance, but was still effective and convincing in his part. The authenticity of Pitt's performance was pivotal in the climax of the film, where he wrestles with grief, anger and a great dilemma in the face of a shocking revelation. Last but not the least, Kevin Spacey's gut-curdling performance as the serial killer was another star-turn. Together with Fincher and Walker, he created a complex and interesting villain that was enigmatic, intelligent and highly unsettling. Without revealing too much, the disturbing nature of the murderer is heightened when he reveals the rationale behind his killings, and we as the audience cannot help but marvel and perhaps even understand the logic and truth behind some of it.
I leave you with Se7en's opening credits - a testament to the greatness of the film itself and Fincher's construction of an abhorrent and twisted world that is only a shade darker than ours.
