Uncomfortably Heartbreaking

Rating: 1/10 (22 December 2006)

"The Pursuit of Happiness" is a movie about Chris Gardner (Will Smith) and his son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and their struggle to "Survive" in San Francisco.
Chris is a struggling salesman who's wife (Thandie Newton) becomes frustrated with their way of life. They struggle to pay every bill and they can't afford anything other than the necessities of life and sometimes they can't even afford that. Linda leaves Chris after one too many days of disappointment at Chris' inability to sell his product.
Chris and Christopher are on their own. Chris lucks out and gets an internship at a stock brokerage. He's one of twenty people fighting for a spot at the brokerage and he is constantly the underdog. Whether it be having to be the one to stop his work and get a donut for an executive or walking into work with one shoe and being stared at the entire way into the office area.
With the good (Winning the internship) comes the bad (He gets no pay, which in real life, he did, but in the movie, he didn't) Chris spends the next six months of his internship living off the earnings of the remaining stock of his product he invested in. He and his son have no stable home. One night they'll be sleeping in a hotel and then the next they'll be sleeping at a homeless shelter and some nights they'll be sleeping in the bathroom of a subway station.
Is Will Smith good in this? He's decent. Not as great as I had heard. But the acting of Will Smith can't save this movie.
You are left sitting in your seat for two hours watching most of the movie squirming from the uncomfortable situations of being constantly railed on from landlords, etc. and begging his buddy for the 14 dollars he has owed him for months just to take the bus back home. I watched most of this movie with my hands over my face and peeking through my fingers out of the uncomfortable situation of watching a man struggle to survive and to keep his son's belly full.
Go into "The Pursuit of Happiness" expecting this: this movie is about Christopher Gardner sleeping on the street and struggling to make up stories to people he comes in contact with about why he's carrying all he owns everywhere around him. It's nothing more.
If you'd like to spend 7.50 to peer into the life of a man who is basically homeless and trying to raise his son, be my guest. I, for one, regret spending the money on it because the movie is nothing more than a classless play on emotions that leaves you turning your head from the screen half the time.
1/10