Bought and re-watched "Se7en" for the first time since it originally went up in theatres, way way back in the misty, time-lost recesses of history. Well, okay, maybe not THAT long ago, but still, there's been some water flowing under a couple bridges since then.
Wow, seeing it again I realized that I really didn't remember much of the movie, at all! Some elements I recalled, but Gwyneth Paltrow...? Nope. She doesn't look like the Paltrow of today anyway, barely recognized her. The voice was the same, and the smile, but damn. She's changed. Not for the worse though, just changed.
Not terribly super fond of Brad Pitt as an actor, never have been really. He's not bad or anything, but in this movie his character is very aggressive and abrasive and just not particularly likeable. It's not his fault I guess, just the way the script was written. Morgan Freeman is doing his thing, again, he's a dependable character actor that, well, you can depend on to do his particular thing. No surprises there really. He kind of reminds me of Sidney Poitier's character in that old flick where he plays a cop in a small southern town and there's been a murder. The similarities don't go very far, other than both characters being intelligent, experienced black police investigators. (Was a really really good movie that one by the way, wish I could remember its name. Saw it on TV years ago.) Kevin Spacey is pretty freaky in this one. He's the main character really, you might say. His characterization is quite different from his other roles in movies like Usual Suspects or L.A. Confidential for example (which both are 90s movies.) Very versatile guy, as an actor.
I remember there was a lot of talk about all the shaky handheld camerawork primarily in the action scenes in this movie back when it was new. It was explained to be because it was the director's (David Fincher) first feature movie, and he'd previously done MTV music videos, and he brought the style over to the big screen. I don't know if all that is true, it's just what I remember reading from back then, and I remember it because I felt the shaky camerawork was a bit overdone, bothersome and distracting at the time. However, re-watching the movie I'm not irritated in the slightest. Shaky action cams have become a notable style in the action genre, perhaps prevalent to the point of being the norm even, I really haven't investigated closely, but it's so common nowadays that seeing Se7en again don't ruffle my feathers in the slightest. I barely even noticed it while watching except a few times during the long chase sequence when I specifically recalled my memories from the first time I watched this movie.
Back then, I felt the movie was perhaps overly gruesome and over the top in crazyness and gore. I guess time has caught up with this feature, because I don't get those vibes anymore when watching it. It's still a horrific gruesome tale really, but I've seen similarly strong movies a number of times since this one was made, so the gory bits don't feel as extreme anymore. The chock factor has at least partially worn off on me.
Se7en does stand the mark of time though. It's not dated at all I feel, you don't get the impression that it is friggin eighteen years old. It feels perfectly timeless really, maybe a person with better eyes for these things can see the passage of time, for example in people's clothing styles (Paltrow's character mainly probably due to being female and dressing prettily), but the main characters' warderobes; dark pants, white shirt and tie, vest, overcoats and so on - Freeman even wears a hat - could fit pretty much any detective movie from now back to the noir era basically. Then again, this is a modern noir tale, so it does make sense.
I liked the movie more this time than when I first saw it. Back then I felt it tried to be overly horrible for the sake of it. Now, it just felt like a really gruesome tale featuring some worn or broken characters (except Paltrow), and I really enjoyed my time quite a lot while watching it.
7 + 1 out of 10.
