I was recommended that film by a cinema blog that listed the best movies of the 90's. Se7en was coincidently seventh on their list, as was Shawshank Redeption and The Usual Suspects among others (all of them were also on the coffee table that was between me and the TV that was showing Se7en). I had a field day at the video rental store earlier that day. In hopes in re-educating myself to be a film connoisseur, I mean one has to watch the best to know what good art is, right?
I watched Se7en and was horrified by Kevin Spacey's character, amazed at Fincher's eye for detail in creating the murderer's apartment - mise-en-scene - (e.g.: the neon cross directly above the single bed, the dirty bathtub that was developing the pictures of the very detectives who were trying to catch him, and terrified by the various depictions of the Seven Deadly Sins (the Lust killing, though never visually shown, is one that I regrettably imagine every time I think of the film).
The film has everything going for it - heady themes (these people were killing themselves and at times harming others, how come its such a big deal that I'm [the murderer] accelerating their deaths?), great acting, and awesome soundtrack made by NIN.
Fincher sometimes gets lampooned because his movies are just so depressing (e.g.: Zodiac, Fight Club, etc.), but this "depressing" ending is absolutely justified as it sets up one of the greatest cinematic twists of that decade - the 6th Sense has nothing on this grand finale in Se7en. After watching The Social Network last night, it cemented within me the greatness of Fincher's directorial films. Like Se7en, Social Network plays into a theme of a person's want to create art and at the same time disregards all matters of civility and law to the point where that creation consumes the creator.
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