Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: [SPIRIT] Il nuovo film di Muccino

"Pursuit of happyness" (sic, Nicola non rompere), il film diretto da 
Gabriele Muccino e interpretato da Will Smith, è finito e c'è stata una 
proiezione di prova. La reazione positiva di uno che c'era qui:
http://www.aint-it-cool.com/display.cgi?id=22766
'sti americani, riescono a finire un film 9 mesi prima dell'uscita, so' 
proprio forti. 

 
http://www.aint-it-cool.com/display.cgi?id=22766
PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (the misspelled title really irritates me, but I
suppose it?s memorable) stars Will Smith, and is written by Steve Conrad
(who recently scripted THE WEATHER MAN.) I?ve always enjoyed Will Smith.
Even when he makes schmaltzy movies, his presence is genuine (except for
THE WILD, WILD WEST ? in which everybody and everything was torturously
rotten and disingenuous.) Director Jonathan Mostow (TERMINATOR 3) recently
departed Smith?s forthcoming TONIGHT, HE COMES?about a superhero who hooks
up with a small town housewife? produced by Akiva Goldsman and Michael
Mann. It?ll be interesting to see how quickly that project jumps back on
track. It'll also be interesting to see if they keep that title, given how
pornographic it sounds.
But, I digress completely. Here?s Vern?
PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS is actually a pretty good drama/shameless
inspirational tale based on an actual guy who was profiled on 20/20 one
time. Will Smith stars as Chris Gardner, a dude who, while completely
broke, struggles through a highly competitive, unpaid stock broker trainee
program. There are 20 people in the program and only one will be chosen to
stay at the firm, the others are shit out of luck. I won't give away
whether he ends up getting the job at the end. Who knows? Anything could
happen.
Anyway the hook is that he's also a single father, and when I said he was
completely broke I wasn't exaggerating. He gets kicked out of his
apartment, gets arrested for not paying parking tickets, gets kicked out of
a hotel, and there's not always room at the homeless shelter so he even
ends up sleeping in a public bathroom at one point. So the drama comes in
how this guy can find shelter for his son, wash his clothes in a sink, then
get to the firm on a bus, carrying all of his belongings, and then be the
best stock broker trainee in the place. At one point he's on a break, he
gets hit by a car and loses a shoe and then has to go back in and play it
cool wearing only one shoe. (I had a similar incident once so it was
exciting to be able to identify so closely with the adventures on screen.)
The story would be hard to take if it was completely made up, but since
apparently it really happened* it makes for a thrilling story to watch him
overcome the odds, and the test screening audience actually applauded his
victories. Luckily he doesn't give too many adorable up-by-the-bootstraps
platitudes either. There's a couple points where I thought it got a little
corny though. I hope they cut out the part where he tells his son not to
play basketball then suddenly scolds him to "Never let anyone tell you you
can't do something - not even me." But most of it's not that bad.
[* Yeah right, like HOSTEL really happened too, huh? I'm giving movies a
benefit of the doubt here that they have not earned. But I read up on it
and at least according to various media accounts, Chris Gardner did go
through adventures fairly similar to what's depicted in the movie.]
This story could try to be gritty, but they approach it more light-hearted.
It seems like Will Smith spends half of the movie frantically chasing after
buses or subways. One part of the story I liked was that he sells something
called high density bone scanners to hospitals. It's his only source of
income, which is bad news since he's rarely able to sell one. But there are
two different points in the movie where a high density bone scanner gets
stolen and he has to chase after it. I thought that was cool because I've
never seen a movie where people fight over a high density bone scanner.
Hell, I'm not sure I've seen a movie where people fight over ANY high end
piece of medical equipment. But maybe that's just a genre I haven't been
exposed to enough.
I figure the bone scanner probaly comes from the real guy (I read that he
did sell medical equipment), but I will still credit writer Steve Conrad
for keeping in a few quirky details like this. He's the same guy who wrote
THE WEATHER MAN with Nicolas Cage, which I thought was pretty good. Both
are heavily narrated movies about an unsatisfied fuck-up blowing it with
his wife/girlfriend but trying his damndest to be a good father while
pursuing his dream job. This guy does better with the fatherhood than the
Weather Man does, though.
The girlfriend, by the way, is Thandie Newton, my least favorite part of
the movie. I used to think she was exotic and glamorous or something but
after THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE and CRASH (not the Cronenberg one) she's
starting to become unbearable. She has this weird Eartha Kitt meets Cruella
de Vil vibe going. She's guilty of a little overacting here but I can't
entirely blame her. All she really gets to do is cry and yell at Will
Smith, so it would be hard to come off sympathetic.
She's not used as a villain though. In fact, there are no bad guys in the
movie at all, which is a nice touch. The weird thing is that even everybody
at the stock broker joint is incredibly nice. Nobody is mean in the movie,
even the people who steal his medical equipment aren't that bad. In fact
some people might think the movie is a republican fantasy where nobody is
ever victimized and sure times are tough but if these other homeless people
would just show some inititiative like Will Smith they could all be
millionaires.
And then if you really start thinking about it it might bother you that
this guy's quest for happiness ends in being a millionaire. (or does it? I
won't give it away. Nobody knows what will happen.) Because there's more to
life than making lots of money. Even if the real Chris Gardner bought a
Ferrari from Michael Jordan, owns more than 200 suits and wears two $10,000
watches according to the articles.
There are more noble goals than owning a bunch of fancy, shiny shit. And in
the movie, why didn't he try to get a real job first? Wasn't it
irresponsible for him to work for no pay when he had a son to take care of?
A son he insisted on taking with him even though his girlfriend, who had a
job waiting for her, wanted to take him? I mean if he wants to sleep in a
bathroom to become a stock broker that's cool but if he hadn't pulled off
the 1 in 20 chance that would be a pretty big fuck you to his son. "Sorry
son, I want to have a Ferrari later so we can't eat food for a while."
But I don't think that would be a fair reading of the movie. If it was
something everybody could do, or should do, it wouldn't be a movie. It's an
interesting story because this guy tries something so crazy and pulls it
off. Like John McClane, only without violence, and with a son, and not as
cool, but still okay.
My favorite scene in the movie (and one that apparently really happened)
was where he had to go straight from painting his house to jail, and then
in the morning went for his interview for the internship. Wearing a sweaty
undershirt and covered in paint. Ain't that the truth. The difference
between this character and the Weather Man, or you and I, is that he is
able to get into a situation like that and then make it work for him. The
lucky son of a bitch. I wonder if he would loan me some money.
I gotta give Will Smith credit for this one. I mean he was impressive in
ALI but at the same time, he was no Muhammad Ali. So it made him look bad.
This time he really does pull off a serious role where he never once slips
into that horrible Big Willy thing he does in most of his movies. And it
was a real good idea to cast his real life son Jaden Smith as his 5-year
old kid. He's a cute kid who perfectly plays a confused kid not sure what
exactly is going on, and the genuine bond between the two is obvious.
If the movie catches on, and I think it probaly will, there might even be
some awards talk for Mr. Smith. It's a good performance in an effective
feel-good hollywood deal so it seems like the kind of thing those suckers
go for. And I don't really mean that in a bad way. The movie kind of
reminded me of ERIN BROCKOVICH a little bit in that I knew it was corny and
pulling my strings but I was able to enjoy it anyway. Also like Erin
Brockovich I'm pretty sure there's a cameo by the real guy. At the very end
a dude in a suit walks by and Will Smith does a double take and gives him a
funny look, so I figure that's the real guy. If not, I wonder what that guy
did that rubbed Will Smith the wrong way. I guess we'll have to wait until
part 2.
By the way, the movie takes place in 1981, and the Rubik's cube plays an
important role in the plot. I guarantee you they end up making promotional
movie logo Rubik's cubes at some point. Mark my words. Also, if you're
wondering why it's spelled HAPPYNESS, there's a nice little touch at the
beginning where he gets pissed off because "happiness" is spelled wrong on
a mural at his son's daycare. And he has a commitment to excellence. I hope
the overseas distributors change the spelling to HAPPINESS to avenge
Americans for changing the spelling on THE FERPECT CRIME.
I never went to one of these test screenings before. I'd actually recommend
it to all movie fans. When you see the survey that asks you whether the
movie drags in parts or if Will Smith was excellent and what age and gender
you would recommend the movie to, you have a more complete understanding of
how movies become so stupid and homogenized. And there are these guys
running down the aisles picking out certain people and asking them what
they put for question #1 and then frantically yelling numbers to other
people and getting averages. And I mean I'm not gonna pass judgment on my
fellow test screeners but I'm pretty sure I spotted a few knuckleheads in
that crowd, I'm not so sure anybody should listen to their artistic advice.
I guess they try to narrow it down a little because on the pass it said
that you couldn't come in if you smelled bad or were "dressed
inappropriately," and you had to be between the ages of 21 and 49. But
other than that it could be anyone.
Oh well, there's your heads up on that one. Now it's back to my true work
of watching the Van Damme movies everybody recommended to me last time.
Thanks for reading,
Vern
-- 
www.iaciners.org
Christine Jesperson: [seeing his bandage] Whoa, what happened?
Richard Swersey: You want the short version or the long one?
Christine Jesperson: The long one.
Richard Swersey: I tried to save my life but it didn't work.
Christine Jesperson: Wow. What's the short one?
Richard Swersey: I burned it.