Interesting: A Feel-Good Movie About How Effort Pays Off, But Happiness Is Something We Never Truly Acquire

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2007)

The Pursuit of Happiness is a film that finds suspense and drama in the smaller things in life, and instead of inflating the drama of a more action-packed or special-effects-driven story places us in the shattering turmoil of an everyman's hard knock life. This is my favorite thing about the movie. We are engrossed in the action that takes place in the frantic day-to-day struggle for a man to simply be happy, which in the context of the movie is to be financially comfortable with a roof over his son's and his own head.
The film is a vehicle for Will Smith, not to mention his cute and smart young son whom co- stars, and it's likely a demonstration of his range. During his career, he's grown as an actor. In his earliest movies, he was very stiff, very scripted, and now he is very graceful and very becoming in his roles, and The Pursuit of Happiness is a show of the extent to which his talent reaches.
It's a very well-written and well-directed film, very light but also very tight and emotionally involving, and it's quite refreshing. The only inconsistency is perhaps the almost unreal and hurried finale, but a flaw that can be easily overlooked, as it provokes the audience heavily and doesn't come without grace. The film is an uplifting holiday season return of the great feel-good film.