Seven Pounds Movie Review - Our Savior Is The Answer

SIDE NOTE- On Friday night Leif decided to spoil me. He took Jakob (first gift) with him to town. He rented a chick flick for me (second gift.) Then he went and got ice cream and cookies (third gift.) It was a very sweet evening even though we weren't able to get to the movie until last night. Now that we've watched it, I have to write about my thoughts.-

We watched the movie Seven Pounds with Will Smith as the main actor. If you really want to watch the movie, don't read much further. However, I don't recommend watching the movie. So if you want to take my suggestion, read more to find out why.

The movie begins with the main character, Ben, calling for an ambulance prior to his committing suicide. With such an opening it makes you hope and wonder if he is really going to kill himself and of course, you ask yourself why!

Well, as the show progresses you start to catch glimpses here and there of a horrible car accident that was caused by Ben. He had just proposed to his girlfriend and they were on their way somewhere fancy to celebrate. Ben was a workaholic and he was text messaging while driving and hit a vehicle head on that cause a chain reaction of accidents. In the end, seven people were killed including his fiance.

Knowing the extreme grief and heartache that would be caused by such a mistake makes it a little bit more understandable why someone would be considering suicide. However, it isn't the suicide that the show revolves around. It is what leads up to Ben's death that they focus on.

Before Ben kills himself he makes a plan. This plan is a series of gifts that in some way saves another person from heartache and even death. Ben sets up ways for him to donate his organs to different people. He also donates bone marrow, part of his liver, and part of his lungs while he is still living. In total, he will "save" 7 people. In his mind this is a form of giving back a small portion of what he accidentally caused to be taken away. Mixed in with all of this is an impossible love story (the woman can't survive without the heart that Ben is going to give her.)

The point that I want to make about this movie is this. I do not in any way discredit the valuable gifts that Ben gave to these people. My grandmother lived over ten extra years because of an organ doner. It is his grief that I want to focus on. This poor man was in such horrible grief-stricken pain. This sadness and despair seemed to have no other option but to take away his life. This is my point, this was not necessary! Someone already paid the price for this mans mistake by giving his own life. Ben did not have to gradually give his own life away. The one component that was missing from this sorrow-filled show was our Savior, Jesus Christ and his saving grace. Through His atonement our burdens can be made bearable. Our heartaches can be eased. And our life can be made livable.

This is the pure miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. If we let Him heal our souls, He will. He has literally felt such individual heart wrenching pain as what this man was feeling because of a small yet, life altering mistake.

I left this moving feeling a tiny portion of the sorrow that our Heavenly Father must feel as he watches one of his children suffer such despair needlessly. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He has the power to heal all heart ache. I know this through my personal experience.