You are what you think about

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2007)

I'm a salesman myself and I can almost empathize with Gardner's struggle to achieve his dreams. Having a very strong desire to attain our goals and believing that we can do anything is so key to being successful. That's the inspirational message I drew from this movie.
I read several comments from others that criticize the film in its strong association of happiness to getting a job in a stock broking firm. Taken literally, I would have agreed. However, I like to believe that Gardner's happiness is not so much as to getting a job in the stock broking firm but in achieving a step in his goal. His goal was to be with his son and to provide for him. He could have gotten a job as a dishwasher and still make-do. But if man do not have big dreams, we might still be living in caves.
The Pursuit of Happiness is about the realization of a man's goal. He does that by simply programming in his mind that he can and must achieve it. When that's done, nothing can stop him - be it discouraging words from his wife, the financial difficulty he was in and the disadvantaged position compared to his peers. The mind will find the way.
I would have given it a 9 or a 10 but in many parts, I felt it was too dramatized and far-fetched.