Genre: Crime/Thriller/Detective

Director: David Fincher

Written By: Andrew Kevin Walker

Certificate: Seven was rated 18's by the Irish Film Censor's Office (www.ifco.ie) i.e. suitable for those of 18 years of age or upwards.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:  SE7EN

Detective Somerset (Freeman), one week away from retirement, is assigned to a murder case with young Detective Mills (Pitt).  The two are immediately at odds: Somerset is analytical, introspective and well-read; Mills, who just moved to the metropolis from somewhere up state, is brash and temperamental.  "It's impressive to see a man feeding off his emotions...", Somerset comments when they start investigating.  The murder scene is disturbing, even for a cop who has worked in the violence-ridden city for a lifetime: an obese man is found at his kitchen table with his face in a dish of spaghetti, hands and feet tided, vomit all over the place, the word GLUTTONY written on the wall behind the refrigerator.

The reference to one of the Seven Deadly Sins and the cold-blooded, calculating way in which the killer acted, bring Somerset to the conclusion that this is just the first of a series of murders - six more, to be precise.  In fact, the next day a prominent lawyer is assassinated in his office and GREED is written on the floor in his own blood.  Somerset goes to the library to look, in Dante's Inferno at the illustrations of the punishments for the Capital Sins...

Reviewed by Claudia Sandroni, Premier Movie Reviews 2006.

Movie Trivia:

• "Jonathan Doe" is a variant of the John Doe name used for anonymous crime victims.

• The man killed for Gluttony is played by the screenwriter.

• Pitt and Freeman rallied behind Walker's shocking finale, eventually convincing the executive producer to keep the gore in the film (Pitt's contract even stipulated that the studio could not alter Seven's final segment).

• Screenwriter Walker claims that he wrote Seven when, while working at Tower Records in New York, slipped into a deep depression and channelled his black mood into the script.

• Somerset is the name of an English county linked to the legend of the quest for the Holy Grail.  The myth says that Joseph of Arimathea built in Glastonbury the first British church to house the Holy Grail about 30 years after the death of Jesus.  In Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers.

RELATED MOVIE REVIEWS:  MORGAN FREEMAN: Batman Begins (voice), Bruce Almighty,  High Crimes,  Million Dollar Baby,  The Sum Of All Fears,   War Of The Worlds (voice).  BRAD PITT: Mr and Mrs Smith,  Ocean's Eleven,  Ocean's Twelve,  Troy,  Spy Game.  KEVIN SPACEY: K-Pax,  The Life of David Gale,  Pay It Forward.  GWYNETH PALTROW: The Talented Mr. Ripley.

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