Se7en is a 1995 production at David Fincher direction, with the script written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The movie stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt in its main roles, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey in smaller roles. The movie scores extremely well on IMDb, with an 8.6/10 rating, placing at the 20th position in their top movies list. The critics were less generous as the movie only received a 65 Metascore.
The Story
The story is a truly horrifying one. The serial killer is using the seven deadly sins to pick his victims. He is always one step ahead and has everything already planned out, which creates an interesting dynamic between him and our two detectives.
Alongside the main story of finding the perpetrator, we seemingly get some side stories as well. Tracy’s adjustment to the new city and her baby with Mills as well as Somerset’s plans after retirement. However, it’s nothing more than a decoy to take our mind off the real deal as seemingly all three of these storylines get cut off early because of Tracy’s death.
I have to say that John Doe’s motives were hard to follow, until the scene in the car with Somerset and Mills. That long scene where they talk about a motive was an amazing addition to the story. It gave us some form of explanation as well as a showcase of Doe’s trickery of the mind. Especially when you take into account that Doe already knew what he had done and probably what was going to happen.
The most amazing part of the story is at the end. We get an at first glance extremely open ending, however, this is far from the truth. For those who forgot to count along with the murders, we were at 5 before they went on their trip, leaving two murders open. The missing sins were Wrath and Envy. Before Mills kills him, Doe admits he envies Mills simpler life, making him guilty of envy. And then Mills kills him, making him guilty of wrath, completing Doe’s master plan.
The Characters
We get our amazing Morgan Freeman performance as a wise, older gentleman as we have come to expect from him. Alongside our wise, old man we get a young boy, still learning and overeager to perform. This created a nice dynamic between Somerset and Mills. I did feel that Mills was a bit too macho and unkind to the point that it becomes annoying to watch. Finally, John Doe is quite an amazing character. He planned everything and everything went according to his plan. He just played with Somerset and Mills.
The Production
To say the least, Doe’s murders weren’t neat. They all were extremely gruesome and, if Fincher decided to put the shot in the scene, they were horrible to watch. But even the ones that were too bad to put in, just the dialogue about them almost made me puke. Props to the writer for such a well-thought-out story and David Fincher for this horrifying detective story.