Good acting, good subject but what about all the others?

Rating: 9/10 (15 April 2009)

We are not used to seeing Will Smith playing the father taking care of his son alone. Especially in his world under Reagan. He lost his wife, then his apartment, then a second apartment, then he had to go to homeless people's shelters, with his son mind you, sleep in BART toilets, with his son mind you, work like hell to get a new profession in the world of finance, go on selling some of the medical machines he was selling before to just make ends meet, to avoid the worst possible, losing his child, his son. And he manages to keep his cool, to remain friendly with everyone, even those who obviously exploit him, and he proves himself and he gets the job, one out of twenty. The whole film is dominated by a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happiness". And this pursuit is a real chase but a chase that does not so much take place outside, because outside it is a hunt not for happiness but for the game that is homeless, defenseless, out of luck and deprived of the minimum. But the chase, and the pursuit, is in one's mind first and foremost. If you are not free in your mind, if you have no project and if you do not have the motivation and the determination to get it going, you will not overcome the difficulties life will bring. Though I think this is true for everyone, that motivation and determination are the basic qualities you need to get anywhere in life, the end result will be quite different and vary a lot according to the point where you started and the opportunities that will come along across your own path and that you will be able to catch. We definitely are equal potentially, but the end results of people in their lives vary tremendously and then at this point equality is no longer the main characteristic. That makes the film slightly sad. For one financial success, how many meager survivals? Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID