True story about a man driven to survive & keep his son from seeing the harshness that surrounds them

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2016)

This movie--based on a true story--concerns a man's struggle to juggle his time, his job, his marriage, his debts, and his aspirations to be a stockbroker. But above and beyond anything else, he wants to be a great father to his 5-year-old son. He wants to be the father that HE never had and always wanted. But, how can one man do all this when he (and his son) are driven from their apartment into the streets and forced to live in public bathrooms and churches? How can he live like this and still keep his son from feeling this trauma too. The answer seems to be imagination, bluffing, and a lot of love.
This is a man driven to survive and keep his son from seeing the harshness that surrounds them. While watching this movie, I was reminded of Life is Beautiful in which Guido Orefice tries to make his son think that living in a concentration camp is fun.
But here, homelessness and fear replace the concentration camp of LIB. If there is one image of this movie that will remain with me forever, it will be that of Will Smith running, always running against the odds, through the streets of San Francisco.