Gloomy role provides a challenge for Smith

"SEVEN POUNDS" begins with what appears to be a suicide and goes downhill from there. Into gloom and misery.

This is going to be the absolute test for Will Smith's power at the box office. His last eight movies each grossed more than $100 million at U.S. theaters - a feat unmatched by any other movie star.

In addition, some of them very likely would have been flops if anyone else had been cast in his roles: as a grubby, alcoholic "superhero"; as a homeless father who holds on to millionaire ambitions rather than just a job; and as co-star with a dog surviving in a deserted New York City. Apparently the public will watch likable Will Smith even when he's portraying jerks.

In "Seven Pounds," he plays Ben Thomas, an eerie, sad-faced IRS agent who travels about meeting, and evaluating, people. He apparently is more interested in their souls than their tax returns, but we aren't sure.

He says he wants to see whether they are "deserving." Will he audit them or give them a break or, just maybe, is this a profound drama about something more? Maybe the meaning of life? Or death?

It'll keep you guessing, if you're willing to play the game. It calls to mind the 1952 movie "Phone Call From a Stranger," in which Gary Merrill plays the lone survivor of a plane crash who becomes obsessed with looking up dead passengers' relatives.

There is an early flash in which we see Ben contemplating a car crash in which seven people were killed. It is only a flash. More might have revealed the simplicity of the "mystery" of "Seven Pounds."

Diversion and confusion seem to be the goal of director Gabriele Muccino, the Italian who also guided Smith through "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006), which got the star an Oscar nomination.

One suspects Smith is seeking another Oscar nomination here - perhaps more than an audience. Is this a clever, complex drama of death and redemption, or is it just an ego trip for its star,

You have to give Smith points for ambition. More than acting skill, though, he mainly proves he can frown and move like a robot. Both achievements are far from the likable, naughty-boy persona that is his main appeal.

Along the way, the movie becomes a weepie romance. After a number of pointless subplots are explored and abandoned, we finally get to the center of the film - a love affair with a fatally ill heart patient played by the charismatic and effortlessly lovely Rosario Dawson.

She has the ability to suggest life-affirming hope even in this role. This, in fact, is the role she has been waiting for. In our desperation for some semblance of light amid all the darkness, we are willing to give her character a big hug and wish her well.

Ben wants to help her and, understandably, falls in love along the way. The romance provides something of a respite at the midway point of "Seven Pounds," then the ghost of Ing-mar Bergman seems to loom in the background, insisting that the movie become profound - even if we aren't sure about what.

There are twists we can't reveal, but by the final shocker, you may be sick of the whole thing.

For Smith, there must be an easier way to earn another Oscar nomination - perhaps a role in a film that doesn't put the audience into therapy.

The title is inspired by William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," concerning having to pay a pound of flesh, etc. Multiply by seven and you get a pretty heavy burden to bear.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com