Too Hollywood

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2009)

This movie is American, so American, even the title itself comes from Declaration of Independence of America.
A man lost his wife, lost his job, lost his house, had no place to live, stayed in a bathroom with his young boy at night.
If this happens to anyone in real life, he would feel hopeless, desperate, angry.
But viewers don't feel that way.
They don't, because they already knew, this story is about Chris Gardner, an Africa American, millionaire, he now has his own brokerage company, and he is the American dream. Just wait to the end, they will see the moment of an American dream realized.
Like many Hollywood movies emphasis, Chris Gardner is a REAL person, and the story is a REAL story! But does it make the whole idea of American dream real? How many Chris Gardner can you find in America?
The story itself was in 1980s, from 1980s to 2006, those were still the years of Wall Street. The movie was made in 2006, just before the financial meltdown. After the meltdown, it would be impossible to make such a movie. Today it will be too ironic to see that in the end, the answer to the 'pursuit of Happiness' is to become a stockbroker. I feel this is outrageous. Wall Street is the answer? They are not the answer; they are the very cause of our problems!
There are many nice things in the movie: Don't give up hope, Love your family, Work hard, all these ideas are fine, I have no problem with these ideas. The problem is the implications behind the whole movie: work hard, American dream will come, believe in love, God will help you, so that the best we can do is work and love and believe, then miracle will happen? Did anyone ask why, a sales man lost his job and what do we do about it? Did anyone ask, in order to make himself rich, what Chris Gardner would have to do? Even the things he do is legal, is it ethical? These are the real questions that this movie never want you to ask.