an extended version of its trailer

Rating: 7/10 (28 January 2007)

The Pursuit of Happiness is an extended version of its trailer, which pretty much already tells the against-all-odds story of how a down-and-out salesman (Will Smith) chases after a job that he has no background on while caring for his son (Jaden Smith).
Based on the life of Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happiness tells of how he overcame every daunting obstacle in his life by sheer perseverance. Despite all the terrible things that just kept happening to him, he never wavered his focus on what mattered most: to be a good father to his son Chris Jr.
Gardner wasn't perfect all around, but he showed how he achieved the American dream (hence the repeated references to the Declaration of Independence) by making the best of whatever situation he was in and doggedly pursuing his ambition to have a better life for him and his son. Even in his desperation, he found solace in the Declaration: "And it was at that time that I thought about Benjamin Franklin. Him saying that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I thought about how he knew to put the 'pursuit' in there, like no one can actually have happiness. We can only pursue it." One particularly emotionally-charged scene was when father and son were playing ball, and Gardner warns Chris Jr. not to spend too much time with basketball because his son wouldn't be good at it anyway, because he wasn't good at it either. When Chris Jr.'s glee turns into a hurt mope, Gardner realizes his mistake and tells the five-year old, "You have 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. Don't ever let them tell you what you can't do." It was refreshing to see Smith play something other than his usual romantic lead or wisecracking action star. In Pursuit, he is bravely out of his comfort zone, without humor as a fall back. He does his dramatic scenes convincingly with help from his real-life son (with Jada Pinkett Smith). Smith proves that he is ready to pursue acting for real with the same bulldog determination as his character.