Se7en
...um, like, wow...?
After wanting to see this for ages, I finally caught up with it, and I was massively impressed. It's easily the best of Fincher's work that I've seen (in descending order, Se7en, Zodiac, 2C2B, Fight Club) and is easily right up there as one of the best genre films I've ever seen with All That Heaven Allows and Sunshine.
This really is a film where everything is pretty much perfect. Fincher's hand is obvious behind everything, something made clear by Zodiac, which is so similar stylistically, which really makes perfect sense, considering the similar ideas running through each, even tho Se7en is massively more malicious.
Equally, the cast is really just perfect. There is not a single major player who does not bring their absolute A game. A special shout out to Poultry* who is understated in the extreme, but exactly what the movie requires of her. (I love the scene where she talks with Freeman in the cafe, and he makes a comment that I don't want to write for fear of spoilers, but the moment he says it, her eyes shut tight to stop the tears and she quickly looks away, and it's just perfect, absolutely perfect, really from both of them, but especially her, and even more so, because her reaction was the exact, exact same as my own.)
The story is pretty much perfectly paced and developed, although one of the major scenes, in retrospect, seems perhaps a bit forced, a bit much of contrivance, and put in place directly with the purpose of driving the plot forward. (And I know people will say, surely everything is, but this one moment I'm talking about is more forced than anything else in the film, and doesn't flow. It seems written, not natural.)
I loved the constant rain, and I thought it was amazingly well shot, and when the rain eventually stops, it fits perfectly as well, and the cinematography becomes even better. The ending I saw coming, and I pretty much knew how it was going to play out, but I kept expecting a twist, and while it never came, Fincher kept me on the edge of my seat, just as he did throughout, and he made the ending play out exactly as it needed to.
All in all, I thought this was pretty much perfect. And I don't think I'm going to far as to say it's worth rating:
5/5
*This is a family joke. I feel bad writing this when I'm trying to give her props, but when I think of Gwyneth, it's Poultry, not Paltrow.