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This effective melodrama gives audiences the pre-requisite tear-jerking moments brought home with real heart from its leads Will Smith and Rosario Dawson. Moving from a captivating mystery in its first act to a sweet romance in its second, SEVEN POUNDS works at times like a broad parable and at other times like a sincere drama. In career best performances, Smith and Dawson bring to life this heavy material.

Ben Thomas (Smith, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS) is on a mission. We’re not sure exactly what that mission is at first, but it seems that he is trying to help people. Emily Posa (Dawson, CLERKS II) needs a heart transplant, and her medical bills have pilled up and she owes the IRS thousands of dollars. Ben arrives at the hospital to audit her; he eventually tells her that he will put a freeze on her account. She wonders why this stranger is being so nice to her. He shows up when she ends up back in the hospital, he comes over and does lawn work, but when she asks him about himself, he shies away. Ben will pay visits to others. His friend Dan (Barry Pepper, SCHINDLER’S LIST) is helping him with his mission, where he seeks out people to help.

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Based on Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning children’s book, unread by me, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX is a fairy tale lost in several different fairy tale worlds. The screenplay by Gary Ross, who has penned wonderful films such as BIG and SEABISCUIT, seems in search of a main character. The charming title character is often lost to the stories of the less compelling supporting cast. When the name of the film is THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX that’s what you expect it to be.

The film begins with a lengthy prologue covering the sad fate of Roscuro the rat (Dustin Hoffman, KUNG FU PANDA) and how he accidentally triggers the banning of the world famous soup in the land of Dor, as well as the banishing of all rats from the kingdom. After this long tale, the narrator tells us a hero doesn’t appear until the world really needs one. So Despereaux (Matthew Broderick, ELECTION) finally arrives. He’s a tiny, big-eared mouse, who doesn’t believe in cowering like the rest of his kind. This makes him an outcast. His bravery leads him to an encounter with Pea, the princess of Dor (Emma Watson, HARRY POTTER). But Despereaux’s bravery only ends in his banishment from Mouseland, sentenced to the pit where the rats will eat him.

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