Pleasingly Predictable

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2006)

t couldn't be more straightforward, but the new inspirational melodrama "The Pursuit of Happiness" is like a Rorschach test. If you bring to it the desire to smile and suffer and laugh and cry with its protagonist, you likely will. If you expect its tale of struggle and triumph to set your teeth on edge, it'll do just that. And if you come to it with no preconceptions at all, it could strike you as flat, formulaic and pat or sweet, inspiring and real. It all depends.
The question, then, is whether the film's mutability is a sign of mastery or of a failure to make something substantial of itself. The answer, maddeningly, is a little of both.
Directed by Gabriele Muccino ("L'Ultimo Bacio") from a script by Steve Conrad ("The Weather Man"), the film tells the based-on-truth story of Chris Gardner, a luckless but bright San Francisco salesman who dreams of being a stockbroker and loses his wife and the roof over his head while pursuing that unlikely goal. Homeless, broke and desperate, Chris manages, however, to hold onto his son, Christopher, as well as to his ferocious personal determination and his winning sense of humor.
Life throws bean balls and knocks Chris to the ground, but, eyes ever on the prize, he gets right back up every time and pushes on. Oh, he loses his temper once or twice, and tells some harmless lies, and does a couple of things that he's probably ashamed of today, and even cries one night when he is well and truly crushed. But they don't make movies about folks who succumb to such moments, no they don't. Which is another way of saying that if you can't figure out where this picture is headed then you need to surrender your car keys and checkbook to a trusted friend because your brain is broken.
Chris is played by Will Smith in a performance that's being buzzed about as the rapper-comic-action star's breakthrough as a legitimate actor (which makes you wonder what the buzzers were doing when Smith was deservedly nominated for an Oscar in the lead role in "Ali" or delivering a subtle performance in "Six Degrees of Separation" more than a decade ago). There's real range in Smith's work here: frustration, irony, despair, grit, wit, professional savvy and, especially, parental warmth.
The latter is especially important to the film and arises from the relationship between Smith and the young debuting actor who plays Christopher, one Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Smith's 8-year-old son. The fact that there's real on-screen chemistry between a real-world father and son is no mean feat -- just ask Sylvester and Sage Stallone. The repartee of the two Smiths can be playful, strained, clingy or tender as the script calls for. It's not mere behaving; it's real acting.
Also real is the atmosphere provided by Muccino, who assiduously resists any temptation to sugarcoat or gussy up the texture of the film. In his native Italy, he has specialized in plausible melodramas; here he uses contrast-rich photography, grimy sets and a firm control of the film's rhythms to keep the Hollywood treacle mostly at bay.
Unfortunately, the script has an episodic quality that, combined with Muccino's restraint, results in a feeling of bloodlessness. The narration also has a self-satisfied quality, which mirrors a smugness that occasionally creeps into Smith's eyes. These sorts of things push you away from the film and make it seem like a series of moralistic tableaux about somebody's hard road to the top.
Still, there's a decency at the film's core and a desire to do the predictable thing in a generally unpredictable fashion. Those traits make it impossible to reject "Happyness" out of hand. Muccino has an assured technique, and big Smith and little Smith are strong. When the film finally gets to where you always knew it was going, you can rightly feel satisfied if never exactly overwhelmed.