The Pursuit of Happyness
Friday, 12 Jan 2007 18:00
Will Smith leaves the guns and fast cars behind to star alongside his own son
Directed by Gabriele Muccino, out now in cinemas, starring Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandie Newton, Brian Howe, running time 117 minutes.
In a nutshell
Heart-wrenching. Tender. Gripping. Hopeful. Inspiring.
What's it all about?
Set in San Francisco in the wealth-obsessed 1980s, The Pursuit of Happyness (the misspelling is addressed in the film) tells the true story of Chris Gardner (Will Smith), a salesman striving to support his family by selling high-tech bone-density scanners, into which he ill-advisedly poured his life savings, to doctors who are less than interested.
When his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) walks out leaving Chris to support their five-year-old son Christopher (Jaden Smith), things take a turn for the worse and father and son are evicted from their home and forced on to the streets where they spend their nights in homeless shelters and public restrooms.
Inspired to try his luck at becoming a stockbroker in a bid to secure a better life for his son, Chris talks his way into a competitive six-month internship at Dean Witter. The trouble is there is no pay and only one of the 20 students on the programme is offered a permanent job at the end.
With a son to take care of, no income and no home, the odds are stacked against Chris as he toils to finish his work before his fellow students so he can pick up his son from the day care centre in time to queue for a place in the local shelter. But in this inspiring tale of triumph against adversity he somehow manages to pull through and finally find his own happiness.
Who's in it?
Action hero Will Smith leaves the guns and fast cars behind to star alongside his own son in what is by far his most conservative film so far. Famed for his previous roles in movies such as Independence Day and Men in Black, Smith delivers a beautiful and understated performance that proves he can do more than just action and comedy.
Smith's seven-year-old son Jaden makes his big screen debut and delivers a surprisingly good performance, filling his father's shoes admirably. He's also cute as a button, which makes the hardships he is forced to endure all the more poignant.
As an example…
Dishing out some sound advice to his five-year-old son, Chris says: "Don't let anybody tell you you can't do something. Even me. 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."
"What would you say if man walked in here with no shirt, and I gave him a job," Chris' interviewer asks in reference to his scruffy attire. "He must have had on some really nice pants," Chris replies.
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Highly likely. Will Smith has already been nominated for a Golden Globe for his outstanding performance as a desperate father in this film, and he is now being tipped to land an Oscar nomination.
And he certainly deserves one for, if nothing else, his heartbreaking facial expressions during the last moments of the film as he finally finds the happiness he has been seeking.
What the others say
"A reminder of how close we dance to the pit, how easy it is to fall in, how heartbreakingly difficult it can be to clamber out. This alone makes it a welcome meal. Smith's portrait of resilience and Muccino's clarity of heart are simply the gravy." – The Boston Globe
"Young Jaden Smith gives a performance so natural and unmannered, so suffused with unforced innocence and childlike wonder that only a Scrooge could find fault. So go, enjoy, have a nice cry and come out feeling better about the world." – GuideLive.com
So is it any good?
The Pursuit of Happyness is one of those films that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. It is a sophisticated mixture of social realism and inspirational drama that pushes the importance of going after your dreams, even in the most destitute of circumstances.
A major driving force of this movie is definitely the warm relationship between father and son, and the fact that young Christopher is played by Smith's own offspring imbues it with a realism that would otherwise be lacking. No doubt Smith's sensitive performance was influenced by thoughts of how he would protect his own son in the face such hardships.
The film's analysis of Thomas Jefferson's definition of happiness in the Declaration of Independence is extremely thought provoking. Indeed it inspires the viewer to examine his or her own means of attaining true happiness. As Chris finds out in the film, happiness is not something one can simply have but something one has to pursue. And pursue it he does, with a determination and a resolve that many would not possess.
There are of course some elements of the film that do not quite sit right, for example Chris seems to win his place on the internship far too easily - he gets noticed after solving a Rubik's Cube. But such implausible moments can be overlooked in the wider context of the film, which is both intelligently scripted and cleverly directed.
There are no big surprises in this film. It is obvious from the beginning that there will be a happy ending. It would just be far too bleak otherwise. However the tender chemistry between father and son and the heartfelt performances by the two leading actors means its no less touching when you get there.
9.5/10
Gemma Roskell
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