A little too dreary.

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2006)

For a film that deems itself uplifting, The Pursuit of Happiness is quite depressive. Most of the movie ("most" meaning not half but about 9/10 of it) deals with Chris Gardner's (Will Smith) struggles with poverty, the raising of his son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and his tired wife (Thandie Newton). Chris' pursuit gets very long and by the time we get to the end, the reward is not at all worth our wait. Besides, we knew it was coming.
Chris longs to be a stockbroker. He marvels and the lifestyle that comes with it. He has no education above high school, he has one suit for special occasions and sells out-dated bone scanners to hospitals which do not want them. However, this is a true story, so instead of being improbable, the plot is feasible.
What gets out of hand is the adversity Chris faces. Steve Conrad, the screenwriter, goes out of his way (really out of his way that is) to emphasize the fact that this guy had it tough. Don't get me wrong, this is necessary in order to fully appreciate the feel good ending, but too much is too much. His wife leaves him, he gets kicked out of a few motels, takes his son to homeless shelters, then ends up staying in a subway bathroom, all this in a background of more oppression and intimidation at the broker firm.
I thought the film would make me feel good (not that I'm feeling bad or anything, I'm just saying), but there's too much going bad for Chris and only at the end do we get the emotional, tear jerking moment. And let me say, it's not that spectacular. Take The Shawshank Redemption for instance. Andy, the main character, wasn't continually put down, yet Shawshank has one of the best, most memorable emotionally uplifting endings in history. We got uplifting moments during Shawshank, which is what Pursuit omits. The key is not to keep beating down your main man in order to have an effective ending.
Will Smith's performance makes the movie worthwhile. Not at all over-the-top, it is just masterfully controlled. We totally buy his character. Too bad Pursuit is so dark and dreary.
Happiness is spelled wrong in an early scene to show that Chris hasn't found true happiness yet. He asks to spell it right so as to not lead his son into error. Funny, I would have asked to make the whole movie right, because it is spelled all wrong.