The Pursuit of Happy ness (2006) **

Rating: 5/10 (22 April 2007)

What a joke this film was - are they sure it wasn't really supposed to be a comedy? The only reason I gave it an average rating instead of lower despite the nonsense all through it is because Will Smith was pretty good in the part of Chris Gardner (this is based on a true story, though I'm already reading there was more to it than meets the eye). Smith's cute real-life son Jaden gets to star along with pop.
Poor old Chris -- he has so many problems, supposedly unlike the rest of us, the movie seems to be saying: His wife leaves him, he has to try and take care of his son, he loses a shoe, he gets parking tickets including even when it's not his own car, he has trouble making his bills, he has to struggle to make ends meet....... Give me a break. All throughout this film I kept shaking my head in disbelief and shouting at the TV screen: WHY DON'T YOU TRY GETTING A JOB!!!!!!!???. The stupidity of the story is that we're supposed to feel sorry for Chris even though he makes his own problems! He once spent all his savings on dozens of portable bone density testing machines and for years now has been wasting his life trying at least to break even by hawking them all around town to doctors when the product isn't popular and is probably already out of date.
Even though these fruitless bone density gizmos have long ago proved to be a non-lucrative prospect, there is Chris, still fooling around with them and ruining not only his own life but his wife and son's. He's dodging his landlord with rent that's months overdue, even to the point where he gets kicked out and has to live out of a motel with his little boy -- until he gets kicked out of there, too, also for non-payment, and winds up sleeping with junior in bathrooms and shelters. He can barely eat, he has no place to go, the IRS is after him for taxes. So what does Chris do under such desperate circumstances? He takes another thankless position with no salary as an intern for a major brokerage firm, working for free! He has high hopes and determination that if he tries hard enough he may one day make the big bucks. This is all very admirable -- but what about surviving today?
Look, the heart was in the right place here, and obviously Chris Gardner was more concerned with hoping that the end would justify his means. All I can say is, I have zero concern or sympathy for a man who doesn't do what he's got to do to pay his bills, his rent, his taxes, and to put food on the table for himself and his child. And this guy's supposed to be a great dad? There is no reason whatsoever why this man at any point in his nightmare couldn't have walked into the nearest MacDonalds or supermarket to flip burgers or stock shelves, at least to have some form of income. Hell, even get TWO JOBS if he had to! Why should I cry along with a bum who chooses to sleep in a public men's room when that's the path he chose for himself, and his poor little son? He still could have found a way to pursue his dream of making big money (as if a good job and big money is truly the "key to happiness" anyway, but hey - to each his own). Chris Gardner was his own worst enemy and nobody's to blame but him. It's no wonder his wife left him. ** out of ****