the pursuit of happyness

Tag Archive | "the pursuit of happyness"

Tags: Brian Howe, Jaden Smith, movie review, Thandie Newton, the pursuit of happyness, Will Smith

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Posted on 04 April 2007

ReviewColumn's rating:
4 stars

Poster for The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) No, I didn't spell the title wrongly, "happiness" is indeed spelled with a "y" in place of an "i" in the actual movie title. Why? Well, this film follows the real life story of Christopher Gardner, who is currently the CEO of Gardner Rich & Co. He has had an estimated net worth of over 1 million US dollars in 2006. However, if the facts presented in the movie are to be believed, he was worth a mere 20 odd dollars roughly 25 years ago. He recorded his amazing life story in an autobiography released in 2006, entitled "The Pursuit of Happyness", due to a piece of graffiti on a wall that Christopher saw during his period of homelessness, and thus the deliberate misspelling in the title of the movie as well.

I'll try to leave out some details as far as possible, as I wouldn't want to ruin the movie for anyone who's about to watch it. However, I must say that it is quite a touching story. In the beginning, he's a salesman struggling to meet his quota of selling at least 2 bone-density scanners every month. He can hardly make ends meet, which eventually causes his wife to leave him and to leave their son under his care. He eventually pursues an internship at Dean Witter, training to become a stock broker. He was met with many obstacles along the way, such as being evicted from his apartment due to his inability to afford the rent and thus roaming the streets looking for free places to stay, all the while trying to take care of his son. He was also arrested for not being able to pay his parking tickets, which amassed when he was rushing from one place to another to meet with potential clients for his bone-density scanner, and eventually had to go to the interview for the internship with tattered jeans and a singlet with a shirt over it. At one point in the film, he and his son even sleep in the toilet at a train station, which was an actual event that occurred, according to Christopher himself in an interview. His eventual success is truly an inspirational and remarkable story, from having only 20 dollars in his bank account to the millionaire he is today.

If there is anything I have against the plot and story, it's that the story is a bit TOO sad at times. Honestly. There are many inconsistencies between actual events and those portrayed in the film, some of which were exaggerated or altered for the film. For example, he did not have a wife at that point in his life, instead he had divorced twice. However, scriptwriters decided to include Linda (his wife) into the movie, to make the situation at that time seem all the more worst with his wife leaving him. Also, in the film, Gardner did not receive any pay at all during his 6 month long internship, but in actual fact he was paid 1000 dollars every month (while this might seem like a lot, it was far from enough for Christopher at that point in his life), which further caused him to look even more pitiful. However, some facts have also been altered for the better in order to fit those events into the overall storyline of the film. For example, Christopher spent only 1 night in jail in the film for not being able to pay his parking tickets, but in actual fact he had spent 10 days in jail. Also, Gardner never owned a suitcase, unlike what was portrayed in the film. Instead he stored his personal belongings in plastic bags. However, the facts that were exaggerated do sometimes make people wonder how in the world Gardner managed to push on without pay at all for 6 whole months, it really seems impossible.

Christopher Gardner is portrayed by Will Smith on screen, who does a remarkable job of portraying the fear, loneliness, determination, and gratification at different points in the film. As you watch the film, you'll feel sad for him when he is evicted, feel just as shocked as he was when he realised that he was not going to be paid for 6 whole months during his internship. You'll feel scared for him when he has to sleep in a toilet, and eventually you might even want to clap as well when he succeeds. Will Smith really makes you "feel" the character, instead of having you watch him just act out the entire show. Christopher Gardner's 5 year old son, who's also an extremely important character as he is almost always by his father's side, is portrayed by Will Smith's real life son, Jaden Smith. He really seems to have inherited his father's genes, as he will definitely charm you with his smile, sadden you with his frown, and make you laugh with his endearing character despite the occasional childish joke he'll tell throughout the film. This being his debut film, he obviously has a very long way to go, but he's starting off on the right foot with his portrayal of Christopher (Gardner's son) in this film. There are also other more minor characters such as Gardner's wife Linda (Thandie Newton) and Jay Twistle who first recommended Gardner for the interview to the internship (Brian Howe), both of which do a good job of acting out the characters. On the whole, the acting in the show (especially by Will Smith) is really really good.

On the whole, this movie is extremely inspirational, once you see how Christopher Gardner manages to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in order to reach his goal, you'll really appreciate his determination. The plot summary I gave above was ridiculously short, considering how much more detail there is in the film, which makes his eventual success an even more greater feat. If you're feeling down right now because of various problems in your life, rent/watch/buy this film NOW. It will definitely spur you on even when things seem to be drastically bad.

In short,
Pros: Amazingly inspirational story, with great acting to back it up.
Cons: Film could have stuck closer to actual events that took place in order to make it seem slightly more realistic, instead of altering them for the sake of Hollywood

Click here to buy "The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)" DVD
Rate this movie, give us your rating:
1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars (3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
Loading ...