Powerful emotional film with an understated charm. A must see.

Rating: 8/10 (25 August 2007)

The pursuit of Happiness is a movie based on the real life story of Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Gardner is a medical equipment salesman in the early 1980s who is down and his luck and attempting to keep his family together. When his wife walks out on him he is left alone to take care of his son with an ever decreasing bank balance. This turns into a desperate situation. What ensues is the tale of how Gardner fights for the chance of a better life by attempting to prove himself in an unpaid internship at the Dean Witter stockbrokerage. He does this while sleeping in shelters and subway toilets and caring for his son. Anyone in finance will know of the competitive nature of such positions and what is required to succeed even when one is presented with abundant resources and creature comforts. Knowledge of this makes Gardeners struggle all the more admiring. The trailer for this movie provides the immediate impression that it is likely to be good but that it runs a fair chance of being overtly sentimental, cheesy and self worshipping. It is not. Will Smith delivers a fantastic performance. Whilst growing up I saw Will Smith in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and felt that he would go on to do greater things and not just in the realms of comedy. In the movie Smith's character dwells on how he thought that he could achieve great things when growing up but that this had not materialised. In turn, Smith was never destined for movies like Men in Black or Wild Wild West (Men in Black 2 and Bad Boys 2 make me sick) but for films like this and his performance places him in a world class forum. The Pursuit of Happiness is uplifting, inspiring, heart warming and entirely engrossing from start to finish. This is a movie about hope, determination and family. It exhibits excellent performances from the lead characters and a truly captivating story. There is something in this movie that every human being can relate to. If you have ever struggled to achieve something, faced disappointment, the prospect of losing something you can not afford to lose or come close to achieving some aspect of your dreams you will see these emotions depicted and magnified in this movie. In some ways it is not about the exact situation that Gardener faced but about the general struggle we face in life and how one must remain resolute and never give up hope in our eternal pursuit of happiness. This a powerful emotional film with an understated charm that will appeal to almost anyone with a heart. A must see.