The Pursuit of Happyness

"Very Good"

The Pursuit of Happyness Review


There is a part of The Pursuit of Happyness -- most of the last third, honestly -- that is just plain too bleak. It's taking an eternally optimistic guy just trying to scrape by and doing more than making things rough for him; it's kicking him in the crotch and spitting on him, and maybe humiliating him a little bit. It's some really holiday good cheer.

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is one of those downtrodden guys for whom better times are always just around the next corner. He's a salesman, hawking some over-priced and under-used equipment to hospitals around San Francisco. What Chris wants is a better life for his family, his angry and overworked wife Linda (Thandie Newton, unconvincing with her brittle, bottled up range) and his delectably cute five-year-old Christopher (played by Smith's real-life son Jaden -- or, as he's loftily billed in the credits, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith). And the idea he latches onto, because it does not require a college education, but could still pay off big time, is to become a stockbroker.

So Chris pursues his happiness (or happyness) through a six month unpaid internship program with 19 others, in the hopes that, at the end, he will be the one chosen for employment. He is doggedly determined, as his wife takes off and leaves him to care for their son alone, as his bank account dwindles to nothing, as his prospects for where he and his son will sleep that night begin to get awfully fuzzy.

It's fortunate that Smith is playing Chris Gardner; as the film is based on a true story, I've got to believe the real-life man had to have extreme amounts of charisma in order to survive the life that he did. But despite Smith's natural and ample charms, Happyness offers increasingly sporadic moments of levity and brightness. Because it's not a Russian melodrama, we can be relatively assured of a brighter outcome -- Gardner won't end up dying of consumption, for instance, and his son won't be sent to a work farm -- but in the mean time, it's really depressing. If you need solace, there isn't much. The 1981 San Francisco setting offers some nostalgic relief, with its retro public transportation ads and Rubik's Cube mania, but even the soundtrack is filled with the most maudlin of classic rock. How much misery, how much worse can things get for this guy, before anything starts to look up?

Between his valiant quest for an improvement of his lot in life, his unwavering devotion to his son, and the misery heaped upon him, it's pretty clear that Gardner is Smith's Oscar-bait role. Happyness does a lot to showcase his non-action/comedy abilities, and in a part this well-suited to him, Smith is indeed great. He's not even always likable -- he sometimes yells at his kid, and he doesn't actually seem to have any friends -- but he always seems real.

But what commonly packages up these unglamorous martyr roles is a film with an overzealous and heavy-handed moral message that leaves little to the imagination. In this case, Italian director Gabriele Muccino and screenwriter Steve Conrad offer both unapologetic sentimentality and a message they are content to have Gardner say, quite explicitly, to his son: "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something."

It's a perfectly respectable, if simplistic, message, and it does make for a worse-before-it's-better movie for the season, in the vein of It's a Wonderful Life. But I do question its unassailable truth. After all, I think the same message would lead to a very, very different outcome in the hands of, say, Leo Tolstoy.

Let's race to Sausalito!



The Pursuit of Happyness

Facts and Figures

In Theaters: Friday 15th December 2006

Box Office USA: $162.6M

Box Office Worldwide: $305.1M

Budget: $55M

Distributed by: Sony Pictures

Production compaines: Columbia Pictures Corporation

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 3.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
Fresh: 114 Rotten: 57

IMDB: 7.9 / 10

Cast & Crew

Producer: , Jason Blumenthal, , , ,

Starring: as Chris Gardner, as Linda, as Jay Twistle, as Martin Frohm, as Christopher

Contactmusic


Links


New Movies

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

After the thunderous reception for J.J. Abrams' Episode VII: The Force Awakens two years ago,...

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Like the 2015 original, this comedy plays merrily with cliches to tell a silly story...

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

There's a somewhat contrived jauntiness to this blending of fact and fiction that may leave...

Ferdinand Movie Review

Ferdinand Movie Review

This animated comedy adventure is based on the beloved children's book, which was published in...

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Director Dave McCary makes a superb feature debut with this offbeat black comedy, which explores...

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

A dramatisation of the real-life clash between tennis icons Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs,...

Shot Caller Movie Review

Shot Caller Movie Review

There isn't much subtlety to this prison thriller, but it's edgy enough to hold the...

Advertisement
The Disaster Artist Movie Review

The Disaster Artist Movie Review

A hilariously outrageous story based on real events, this film recounts the making of the...

Stronger Movie Review

Stronger Movie Review

Based on a true story about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, this looks like one...

Only the Brave Movie Review

Only the Brave Movie Review

Based on a genuinely moving true story, this film undercuts the realism by pushing its...

Wonder Movie Review

Wonder Movie Review

This film may be based on RJ Palacio's fictional bestseller, but it approaches its story...

Happy End  Movie Review

Happy End Movie Review

Austrian auteur Michael Haneke isn't known for his light touch, but rather for hard-hitting, award-winning...

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Seemingly from out of nowhere, this film generates perhaps the biggest smile of any movie...

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

A Victorian thriller with rather heavy echoes of Jack the Ripper, this film struggles to...

Advertisement
Artists
Actors
    Filmmakers
      Artists
      Bands
        Musicians
          Artists
          Celebrities
             
              Artists
              Interviews