Despite featuring a few heartwarming moments and fine performances, the film was uninteresting and forgettable

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2007)

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is the type of guy everyone knows and most have been at one point in their life or another - the working poor. He's smart and diligent but unable to catch a break and falling further and further behind in his responsibilities to everything except his young son (Jaden Smith) whom he'd promised to always be around for, no matter the circumstances.
The Pursuit of Happiness is heartwarming in parts but as a whole, the film wasn't very engaging or memorable. The whole thing just felt too manipulative and I think they tried way too hard to get the audience to feel sorry for the main character. For instance, the first half of the film was mostly depressing to watch because the "hero" of the movie was in a bad state so it was hard to watch him suffer. We had to see all of these unlucky scenes and moments where Chris just couldn't catch a break. It got really annoying after awhile to have the film show all of this and it just proved that it was clear pity draining.
The direction proved to be quite lame and it was a big reason to why the movie wasn't very appealing to me. The pacing was on the slow side and it was unbearable at times. This had to do with the fact that the main character himself wasn't very likable so it got tiring to watch him for nearly two hours. We were supposed to root for him which was easy to do because of his situation but I never really viewed him as an interesting person and he was actually pretty selfish. He took on a six month internship which didn't pay any money and he was surprised that his wife wasn't happy with that decision. Even though everything worked out in the end, I don't believe he should have taken that job because his family was in a bad situation already. I admire his determination to get out of the unfortunate situation but not the way he chose to do so.
The most positive thing about the film was the relationship between Will Smith and Jaden Smith. I know that they are related in real life so filming these scenes was probably an easy thing to do yet they did have an appealing relationship and watching them together made you root for Chris a little more because you want the best for the kid. However, I don't believe Will Smith deserved an Oscar nomination. He was really good but there were better performances from 2006. Thandie Newton deserved a razzie for her performance. She was ridiculously over the top and very fake. She had no control of her emotions and was just generally awful. Overall, The Pursuit of Happiness features a few heartwarming moments but for the most part, it didn't really appeal to me. Rating 5/10