Jessica,

are you joking, or are you serious?

Nope, that's the end of the film. When I was at the press screening for the movie a few weeks back, you could sort of feel the room take a collective gasp when that scene happened, because it was just so damn bizarre.

Here's how things fall more or less for the curious (I can spill details since I'm no longer under embargo): Smith's character did kill seven people (including his wife) in a car accident he caused. After that he made a suicide pact with a friend that they would find seven people he could help before he offed himself. Some of these people get his organs--Woody Harrelson, who plays a blind man, will get his eyes; Rosario Dawson, who has a heart defect, will get his heart--but others get things like his house or his money (before the accident, he was a wealthy engineer). Before he gives them their "gift" he has to make sure they're good people, so he comes up with ways to get to know them, mainly by impersonating an IRS officer. The eye and heart folks are the last of the seven because obviously Smith will have to be dead first. He almost gives up on the plan when he gets to know Dawson and falls in love with her. But he ultimately decides to go through with it because her rare blood type means finding another matching donor will be next to impossible.

Cut to the cheap motel where he's been staying with a rare and deadly type of jellyfish--the same kind he used to admire with his father on their weekend trips to the aquarium during his childhood: he fills up the bathtub with cold water and ice, climbs inside and puts the jellyfish inside the tub with him. He's stung to death and dies. Rosario gets the heart and Woody gets the eyes. Months later, both of them meet for the first time and shed a tear over the man that saved their lives.

It's a ludicrous story, but believe it or not, the film kinda works. Mainly because the romance between Smith and Dawson is actually believable. The jellyfish bit is extremely silly and there are other elements that fail miserably, but those two actors give the movie a surprising emotional heft considering how ridiculous things get.

It's a ludicrous story, but believe it or not, the film kinda works. Mainly because the romance between Smith and Dawson is actually believable.

Y'know, I finally got around to watching "I Am Legend" last night, and said pretty much the same thing about it: the movie is ludicrous, but there's not really a moment I don't believe Will Smith.

Man (or his people) needs to go back to picking better scripts.

It harkens back to Independence Day. Totally unbelievable, even by scifi/action movie standards, but I totally, totally believed him in the role.

t offtopic

Barb, dare I hope that your tagline is an actual quotation from Robert Pattinson?

t /offtopic

I heart Will Smith. I'd pretty much watch him read the phone book. If there were shirtlessness involved, I'd pay good money to watch him read said phonebook.

Barb, dare I hope that your tagline is an actual quotation from Robert Pattinson?

Fay, it is. An actual, real life quote. Makes me giggle like a little girl. I've found some others too that kill me, but they're better for Bitches or Natter if you want to read them.

ETA and not completely off-topic, but to satisfy Sail's curiosity, I posted some pics and the trailer for Little Ashes the indie flick where Rob is portraying Salvador Dalí.

[link]

OMG. I have just googled that quotation, and come up with a whole bunch of other things, and I am AWASH with (unstalkery) affection for the bloke. I couldn't agree more with his assessment of the book, and now I actually want to go and see the movie.

I know! You just want to protect him from the crazies of the world. He would fit in beautifully around here, don't you think, Fay?

Yes indeed - he seems to have his head screwed on right. And he's pleasingly ornamental, which doesn't hurt - but the common sense and the whole bringing-the-funny gets a person a whole lot of brownie points.

but the common sense and the whole bringing-the-funny gets a person a whole lot of brownie points.

A-men to that, sister.