flings us higher than any feel-good film in a while

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2006)

The Pursuit of Happiness reviewed by Sam Osborn
For a feel-good movie, The Pursuit of Happiness sure does want its audience to feel crappy. I don't mean this as a criticism. Rather, I think it's a show of intense bravery for a film stuck in a genre already soaked in sappiness. But it's a long, downhill journey for most of the film's duration, watching as Mr. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is repeatedly pummeled under the American economic system. I suppose it follows Nietzsche's oft-repeated quote "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." And so, to ravage the saying entirely, if the lows of The Pursuit of Happiness doesn't kill the picture, they make its endingyou know, the feel-good part of the recipejust that much sweeter.
The grand scheme was to tell the story of the American dream from a new perspective. Such was the motivation in bringing European director Gabriele Muccino onto the project. Feeling that Americans have drawn too close to the concept to pull any focus on it, Muccino takes a step back and looks at our American dream from a fresh perspective. The result is indeed refreshing. The movie comes without any fat around its curves. It's a slim, distilled version of the American dream, where a mana smart, good man in whom most Americans probably see themselvestries to better his living conditions using the American system of capitalism promised in the Constitution. It doesn't come with a side dish of romance or tragic hors d'oeuvre; just a man trying to do right by his family.
But Chris Gardner's family is quickly dispersing. Linda (Thandie Newton), his wife, leaves him early on, choosing to fend for herself rather than go down with Chris' sinking ship. She leaves him with their son Christopher (Jaden Smith), whose daycare costs $150 per month. Chris would have to sell two bone density scanners each month to pay rent, daycare and groceries. But he hasn't sold one of the wretched devices in a while and the overdue bills are piling up. Chris is good at numbers though, and can solve a Rubik Cube with astounding ease; so he applies for an internship at Dean Witter. The gig's an unpaid one, but if he gets the job at the end of the course, he's set for life. Problem is, only one in twenty interns is hired; and if you aren't hired, you can't apply for a job at any other stock brokerage firm for six months.
The script is a product of Steven Conrad, the same writer who penned last year's The Weather Man. The films are deceivingly similar, each chronicling a series of unfortunate occurrences that slowly slice at the legs of an American man. In both films, Conrad manages to find a sweet and hilarious humanity in bad days, or bad weeks, or bad years. His heroes are good men and American men, who struggle to find themselves something worth having in our system.
Much huzzah has been made over the familial pairing of Will Smith and his son in parallel father-son roles. The decision was a smart one, as their performances are as sincere as ever. Jaden may not have many lines, but it's not hard to see that he loves and believes in his father, whether he's playing Will Smith or Chris Gardner. And Mr. Smiththe older one, that ishasn't been lying in his much-publicized interviews that this film is a turning point in his acting career. His Muhammad Ali was a force, but the role of Chris Gardner was built for him.
Make no mistake though; for the feel-good genre, The Pursuit of Happiness is a brutal, sometimes cruel entry. But I suppose that's the point, and Chris says it somewhere in the first act: that when the founders of the Constitution wrote "the pursuit of happiness" into the text, they only promised the pursuit. The chase is a long, mean one; but when the end is found, it flings us higher than any feel-good film in a while.
Samuel Osborn