The younger Smith, who reportedly auditioned for the part, is precocious but not annoyingly so. It’s a love story in the purest sense as Chris tries to shield Christopher from the hardships they face, and it’s instances like this that makes you think nepotism can be a good thing. The most effective aspect of the film is the relationship between father and son. Staying one step ahead of the taxman and moving from apartment to motel to shelter to subway station, Chris is a model of persistence as he clings to his dream. With his finances at less than zero, Chris embarks on an unpaid six-month internship at the end of which one of 20 hopefuls will land a job as a stockbroker. Still, there’s not enough money coming in, and his wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), who’s been working double shifts in a laundry, leaves him to care alone for their 5-year-old son, Christopher (played by Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s son, 7-year-old Jaden Christopher Syre Smith). Running from doctor’s office to hospital peddling his scanners, we see Chris’ plentiful people skills at work. Even in a more modest register, Smith is a very appealing leading man, and he makes Gardner’s plight compelling. Though the subject matter is serious, the film itself is rather slight, and it relies on the actor to give it any energy. He’s invested his family’s money in a load of cutting-edge bone-density scanners that, unfortunately for him, provide a slightly better image than an X-ray at twice the cost. In fact, in the sluggish Bay Area economy of 1981, he’s losing ground. He plays the fictionalized Gardner as an intelligent, energetic guy who can’t catch a break. This is a much lower-key performance than we’re used to seeing from Smith, and he pulls it off admirably.
Kramer,” which it superficially resembles. The man’s struggles are emotionally engaging, but dramatically it lacks the layering of a “Kramer vs.
“Inspired by” is an interesting phrase because the movie is more inspiring than inspired. The movie is “inspired by a true story,” that of Chris Gardner, who was among San Francisco’s working homeless in the early ’80s and managed to pull himself and his young son up by the bootstraps. “The Pursuit of Happyness,” a routine domestic drama starring Will Smith, is the story of one man’s unwavering pursuit for a better life (and presumably happiness with an “i”) against long odds. We are theoretically assured of life and liberty, but happiness we are left to pursue on our own. MOVIE REVIEW ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ Will Smith plays a down-and-out but undaunted go-getter in “Pursuit of Happyness.”Īmong the inalienable rights promised in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, happiness is the only one not guaranteed. And After you watch this movie, you will find out how lucky you are. He’s the real deal.The reviewer said ” ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ is an unexceptional film with exceptional performances.” Though the subject matter is serious, the film itself is rather slight, and Will Simith give this movie its life, its energy.
The role needs gravity, smarts, charm, humor and a soul that’s not synthetic. And Smith wins our hearts without losing his dignity, as Chris suits up for success by day and fights off despair by night.
Director Gabriele Muccino (the Italian, and better, version of The Last Kiss) resists overkill until the final scenes. All this would cause projectile vomiting if both Smiths didn’t swim against the tearjerker tide in the script by Steven Conrad. Soon, father and son are scrounging for food and living in homeless shelters and train-station toilets. The catch? It’s a training program that doesn’t pay until he gets hired, if he gets hired. Rent is due, but Chris thinks he can pursue happyness (the misspelling is on a mural at the kid’s day-care center) by getting a stockbroker’s job at Dean Witter. She splits for New York, leaving hubby and their five-year-old son, Christopher (cutie-patooty Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett), to fend for themselves. Smith plays Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman trying to unload bulky bone scanners (don’t ask) while his depressed wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), works scut jobs. How can Academy voters resist Smith, with gray flecks in his hair, in a true story (well, inspired by a true story, meaning it’s been tightened and prettied up) about a homeless single dad and his son.