Seven pound

“The Pursuit of Happyness” is off-putting for its manifest manipulations, as well as its pretentiousness and self-importance. All the same, the climax will be emotionally devastating for many viewers, perhaps particularly those with serious religious beliefs, meaning there’s a substantial audience out there for this profoundly peculiar drama, if word gets around.man (Smith) calls 911 to report a suicide. “Who’s the victim?” the operator asks. “I am,” the man replies, whereupon there’s nowhere to go but to a film-long flashback to reveal what’s gotten him to this point.Carrying an ID card from the U.S. Dept. of Treasury, Smith’s Ben Thomas circles some names on a printout. One is blind phone salesman and pianist Ezra (Woody Harrelson), while another is Emily (Rosario Dawson), a young woman with an enlarged heart who will need a transplant soon if she’s to survive. It’s hard to know how to read Ben during this phase; the way he insinuates himself into other people’s lives gives him something of the air of a hustler or con man, and his contentious phone relationship with his brother (Michael Ealy) raises questions of its own.Seven Pounds” offers either seductive emotional appeal or indigestible mawkishness, according to taste. Along the way, there are references to a fatal vehicular accident, suggestions of Ben’s deceptiveness and inscrutable imagery of a jellyfish which, you may be sure, all factor crucially in the denouement.