Inspiring, emotional, and well done story.

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2015)

I don't know that this can be considered a feel-good movie. It has a happy ending, which is kind of inevitable given the title, but almost nothing leading up to that point is terribly happy. It feels a lot like the Shawshank Redemption or 127 Hours since the protagonist's final victory is so genuine because of how much the protagonist has been through. It also helps make the happy ending be much less clichéd and less insulting to the audiences' intelligence. In fact, if you take out the ending, it turns out to be a pretty depressing movie.
The main complaint that seems to surround this movie is that Chris Gardener's mission seems too money based. This bothered me at first too, but I took a step back and realized that it's not quite as much about money as it seems. The initial stock brokerage scene is the only scene where the money=happiness concept is really present. We see that Chris is struggling to make ends meet, and, with the setting being corporate America, this means that he needs a more substantial income. So really his constant need for cash is just that: a need. His joy at the end is probably more a result of his hard work finally paying off than the thought of being "rich".
I know that the story deviates a bit chronologically from how Chris Gardener's life actually panned out. This is a common occurrence in non-fiction movies, and it sometimes doesn't work out well, but I thought it did here. I'm not sure what was different about how the movie pulled off the story element differently, but it just came off as a story and not a less interesting sequence of events. One explanation might be that the story is also about Chris's relationship with his son and Chris's struggle as a single dad. In another dimension, it's about social mobility and just how much it can pay off to jump on the opportunities that come our way and to be as self-sufficient as possible.
Chris Gardener is a pretty likable and realistically written main character with some great lines. Will Smith gives a believable performance and shows us the many sides and emotions of our protagonist. The chemistry between him and Jadon Smith was great, as can be expected since they are the roles they play. I thought Christopher Jr. was really well scripted in that his character was as smart as someone of his relative age would plausibly be. Jadon has that kind of mumbling quality that a lot of little kids have in their voices, but he's still coherent. Jay Twistle and the Dean-Whitter employers are sort of the dramatic conflict since their program and its rigors are the main challenge that Chris has to overcome, but none of the characters themselves are portrayed as villainous. You can believe that they are as human as the guy sitting next to you. Linda Gardener is a relatively minor character, and you could make an argument that her relationship with Chris wasn't sufficiently developed.
There's not much to say with the execution. I really liked the piano theme song, and felt like the sequence of the scenes was well done. The directing acting is solid and even superior at a few points. But this is a movie that isn't about great technical feats, just as long as they aren't noticeably bad. Still, it was nice to see the filmmakers make a sincere effort.
If you're in a bad mood, don't watch this movie unless you plan on finishing it in one sitting. If you don't like nonfiction movies, I would advise that you put aside your conventional perception of that genre going into this. It's relatively family friendly, but there are a few pretty emotional moments and it definitely isn't family geared. If you're looking for something inspirational, it fits the bill in a number of different ways. Overall Rating 8.3/10.