The Pursuit of Happyness
The Scene
Since Thanksgiving billboards advertising Will Smith’s latest movie have been all over the place. maybe before then. Funny thing about Will Smith, he’s at that point where any movie with his name attached makes it a guarantee that it’ll be worth the ticket price. Give me the time and place, I’ll be there with a ticket in hand.
Hadn’t read much about the movie (by choice) all I knew was it was based on a true story and Will Smith’s son was along for the ride.
Walking through Coliseum Books searching out CSS stuff, I drifted to the business section. There was one bare spot on the shelf, in it was the last copy of The Pursuit of Happyness. Yup, there it was the story as told by Chris Gardner, the man Will Smith portrays in the movie. If there’s no time for magazine articles, there is even less time for the book.. I’ve got a long list, this time the movie will have to do.
What They Say
“The Pursuit of Happyness” is an unexceptional film with exceptional performances and, if you’re curious, takes its title’s quirky spelling from a mural outside Christopher’s Chinatown day-care center. There are worse ways to spend the holidays, and, at the least, it will likely make you appreciate your own circumstances.” - Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
“Smith is the sort of celebrity who succeeds by being exactly like the rest of us, only one notch better. He’s the opposite of Dr. Phil: He makes us feel not-bad about ourselves. If actors were outmoded self-help books, he’d be I’m OK, You’re OK. If actors were furniture, he’d be a huge overstuffed leather sofa.”
“One thing Smith has never been is a high-octane serious actor man, because he’s never worn his roles with any arty stiffness in his joints. He’s just, you know, a guy. But in The Pursuit of Happyness, Smith brings the art of guyness to an apex of compassion and understanding..” - Amy Biancolli
“..as likable as Smith is, his character is never fleshed out beyond that of the self-made superman. Though pretty to look at (with camerawork by Phedon Papamichael) and inspiring to contemplate, this story of human triumph needs a lot more of the human for an audience to actually experience the triumph.” - Toddy Burton, Austin Chronicle
My Opinion
The movie starts off a little shaky with Thandie Newton’s under-written role as Garnder’s ex-wife. The exchanges between Will and Thandie amount to “whatever” and “I gotta go to work.” Except for a flashback to a happier time in their marriage, you never feel like they are a couple so the problems they’re having don’t resonate. Whenver she bares her vampire fangs it really made you want to say.. “whatever”.. “go get happy.” Thandie Newton is a better actress than a one-dimensional angry black woman, someone choked writing her diaolgue.
Maybe the writers were eager to get to the meat of the story, which was detailing the struggles of a man with the American dream on his mind, but not getting much in the way of results.
I think any hardworking person, a person who has ever thought of being and doing better than they are, will feel the images of struggling with less than certain dreams while providing for themselves the most basic needs and for the most important people in their lives - their children.
The father son combination is natural and dynamic, Jaden, Will Smith’s son not only made it easy for Will to slip into character, during what would be tedious moments he fills in with comedic relief, some call him a scene stealer, I call him extra-spice. You can’t tell if it’s just his personality, simply being a kid, or if there was a method to it, but his first acting job is a great one. So much so that the movie wouldn’t be the same without him.
Knowing that it’s Will’s son makes those scenes with him 100% believable.
The most touching and resonating moment is when they are evicted with no place to go but the subway. Will Smith says he visited the subway bathroom where Chris Gardner and his son actually spent more than one night in. In the movie ‘the cave’ is the first time Will drops a tear. I felt every minute and it makes you think of the kind of person it takes to deal with, yet come out of that situation.
Struggle. Determination. Persistence and Love.
Those words say it all.
If not one of Will Smith’s best movies, it is the most inspirational.
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