Beautiful gripping realistic tale of a tragic hero, who'll leave you crying for more

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2006)

Thanks to the Smith Family, I was able to see the pre-screening of this movie with my partner, and we were both absolutely surprised at how good this movie was! At first, my impression was that it will be mostly comedy, because of the type of movies Will Smith was in. Then I was skeptical because the description of the movie was something that sounded serious! But then, even as a serious character, Will Smith was a great actor alongside his side Jaden, which gave the whole "father-son" figure all the more real.
As a medical equipment salesman, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) barely made enough money to pay rent and support his family. The situation just gets worse, his wife (Thandie) leaves him, he struggles to take custody of his son (Jaden), then he got kicked out of his apartment, lived in a cheap motel, living off 23 bux, kicked out of the motel, then right into sleeping in the toilets at the train station. By that moment of the film, you'd be gripping and crying for this character, pondering if it's possible to get more worse than the worst. But then the theme of fatherhood and Chris' determination to provide for his son makes this character the most admirable and self-less man ever. He believed he could find happiness, and he believe he could do it. Even with all these obstacles, he takes one look at his son and he gets back on his feet to face the cruel world once more.
This is a story that'll leave you in awe, and fill you with hope, that you can do it, and make it, as long as you believe you can do it.