The Pursuit of Happyness

I used to watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air all the time back in the day. There was one episode where Will's father returns for a short time, only to disappoint Will again. Will lets out what seems like years of pent up frustration and anger at his father for not being there for him. The audience was shocked into silence and he wowed me with that little performance. I thought "Wow, that's some great acting". Will Smith will win an Oscar one day, if not for this performance, for something else in the future.

I took in The Pursuit of Happyness tonight. Yes, it's supposed to be spelled happyness instead of happiness. The question why is answered in the film. It was inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner and is set in San Francisco in the early 1980's during the Reagan era. Will Smith stars as Chris Gardner, a struggling husband and father trying to make ends meet. Chris has invested all their life savings into a supply of bone density scanners and they are not selling well. His beleaguered wife, Linda (Thandie Newton) is frustrated with being two months behind in the rent and working double shifts at a laundry. She leaves for New York for a better opportunity and Chris is on his own now with their son, Christopher (played by Smith's real life son, Jaden Smith). This seems to be the catalyst for everything going wrong that can go wrong. They get evicted, the IRS takes money owed from Chris' account, Chris is arrested for failure to pay parking tickets, etc.


The turn in the story happens when Chris asks a man getting out of a Ferrari what he does for a living. The man tells him he's a stockbroker and Chris decides he wants to be one, too, because to him, everybody there looks so happy. After successfully pestering a man about getting into the internship program, he begins his unpaid six month internship. During his internship, they get evicted again, and Chris and his son are homeless. The whole story is very gripping in that it seems like this man has every hurdle thrown at him in his pursuit of his dream and yet, tries to make the best of it for his son so his son doesn't realize how bad things really are. It reminded me of Life is Beautiful in that way. It's also very realistic in its portrayal of their life on the street. I read that they hired real homeless people to be extras in the film. This film really highlighted the differences in lifestyle between the homeless and the upper crust. I don't neccessarily agree that money = happiness, but not having enough money to live on can sure make you unhappy. This film really resonated with me on a personal level. Will Smith is amazing in this and is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama. He should also get an Oscar nod and deservedly so. Directed by Gabriele Muccino and written by Steve Conrad.

The Pursuit of Happyness
8.5/10
Highly recommended
See it if...you like Will Smith, love a great underdog story, or you just want to see a great, moving story.
Best line: Chris: "You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period."