“Don’t cry,” my dad said to me on our way to the emergency room. For some reason I thought I could jump down a flight of twelve steps in one leap and escape the stunt unscathed. It turned out to be only a couple of sprained ankles but I didn’t know that as I struggled to fight back the tears in front of my father. “Shake it off,” he continued, “boys are supposed to be tough.”

“Sure,” I said as they asked me to come along, before continuing to myself, “Just don’t cry."

Seven Pounds tells the story of Ben Thomas (played by Will Smith), an IRS agent with a secret burden of guilt. The film opens with hints via flashbacks of a traumatic incident in Thomas’ recent past, and follows him as he tries to rectify his own guilt.  As the film progresses, Thomas comes into contact with a number of strangers whom he tries to help with the hopes of ease his guilt. The casting is perfect, particularly in the case of the main characters played by Smith and Rosario Dawson (Emily Posa), one of the aforementioned strangers.

Smith and Dawson’s on-screen chemistry is palpable and the development of their relationship is very natural. Dawson is charming and believable in her role as an artist with a congenital heart condition. She was very charismatic and I was convinced I wanted to marry her by the end of the movie. Smith also plays his role perfectly and really projects his character’s pain and guilt through to the audience. His character constantly struggles to make his situation right and watching him do this is a steady pull at the heartstrings. My eyes began to well up a few times, but I was able to hold back the tears as I watched the story unfold.

Despite my best efforts to “be tough,” as the ending culminated the inevitable and tied all the stings of the story into a neat, yet depressing, little bow, the floodgates eventually wore away. Tears streamed down my face unchecked and I didn’t care. Seven Pounds demonstrated an example of a drama film at its finest. Just don’t be naïve enough to believe that you won’t be one of the audience members to leave the theater with at least one tear shed.