‘Seven Pounds’ – Smith lifts heavy tale

Will Smith appears on the verge of suicide in the opening minutes of his new drama, “Seven Pounds.”

And it only gets more intense, and more inscrutable, from there.

Smith’s latest, another step away from his days as that alien-busting, zombie-smashing Bad Boy, finds the actor inhabiting his least likable character yet.

He plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who thrusts himself into the lives of seven total strangers. Each has a unique problem Ben does his best to alleviate, although like the Man Upstairs he works in mysterious ways.

One problem he can’t do much about concerns Emily (Rosario Dawson), an attractive woman who suffers from congenital heart failure. She initially doubts Ben’s intentions, but she slowly realizes his own heart is in the right place.

It’s only when Ben lets down his guard with Emily that the story’s redemptive arc starts to take shape.

Director Gabriele Muccino, who clicked so easily with Smith on their first pairing, “The Pursuit of Happyness,” is in no hurry to solve the film’s emotional puzzle. Flashbacks fill in some of the story gaps, but a better film would mete them out in a more cogent fashion. At times we’re told too much about Ben’s situation, but in other scenes we’re left clueless as to why he acts the way he does.

It’s a dramatic tease that feels like a stunt whipped up during a screenwriting workshop.

Smith has never seemed so vulnerable, so helpless, on screen before. He buries his trademark smile and natural buoyancy, leaving only his vacant 1,000-yard stares. But he remains a nimble performer, one who can locate the layers of pain within his character without pushing the audience away.

Actors sometimes need a few roles, or even a decade in front of the camera, before they fully come into their own. Consider Dawson’s work here as her personal tipping point. She’s radiant even as her character’s heart begins to falter. It’s a star turn which never distracts from the name above the title.

“Seven Pounds” ends with an exclamation point, a right hook which is sending some film critics reeling. But there’s something so irredeemably healing about these final scenes, so hopeful, that it’s impossible to deny their impact.