Review of The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) by Jj A — 12 Dec 2017

The meaning of happiness isn't something learned over the entirety of a lifetime. It is discovered in moments of calm after persevering through months or years of unimaginable hardships, as they try to make out the light at the end of the tunnel. Gabriele Muccino attempts to recreate these moments through his movie, The Pursuit of Happyness; this sensational melodrama epitomizes the American Dream that millions have experienced through the biography of Chris Gardner's embattled life, as he struggles to make ends meet in San Francisco with his wife and kid.

The beginning scene opened on Gardner, happily strolling through the hills of San Francisco with a sewing machine under his arm. He had invested all of his savings into the clunky contraptions that could measure bone density; his main job was to haul them around San Francisco and convince physicians that they were worth the money. Over time, he began selling less and less, while his wife began taking more and more shifts at the dry cleaners; yet Gardner had repeatedly reassured his family that they would pull through, and against all odds come out on top. Their rent bills kept being pushed back, until one night, all hell broke loose. His wife abandoned him to get a job back east, his landlord kicked him out of his apartment, and no one needed his machines anymore. Gardner hit rock bottom. It was the tear-invoking moment in the movie, when, Gardner, homeless, jobless, sitting in the subway restroom and clutching his sleeping son, transforms the typical sob story into something more tangible. The genuinely heartbreaking display of emotions by Will Smith in that scene is one of the reasons this movie stands apart from the others. Gardner's only salvation was to set up camp in a homeless shelter, and survive an unpaid brokering internship, something he had been dreaming of doing. To do this, Gardner had to woo the job from Dean Witter, owner of the stock firm. His 5-minute cab-ride interview with Witter's aide revealed his quirky attitude and his unusual skills in mathematics and solving the Rubik's Cube, which charmed both the aide and the movie audience. Gardner got the job, and dutifully trotted off to secure a bed in the homeless shelter for himself and his son. The scenes in the homeless shelter, of Gardner bathing his(Will Smith's actual) son, telling him stories as he fell asleep, and standing proud amongst other broken men as they got their food, spoke to the paternally protective side of the audience. It also spoke of Gardner's unnerving ability to see a future for himself and his son in which they would be happy, and this vision drives him to tackle each challenge as they come along. The lesson Gardner, and ultimately Will Smith, taught to his son, and Muccino taught to the audience, was that despite every possible thing that went wrong in Gardner's life, he would not stop trying for his son's future and "happyness". It was Muccino's and Smith's ode to parents present and past that kept getting up after they were kicked down.

In Gardner's eyes, the Pursuit of Happyness is the pursuit of perseverance in the face of ever-mounting odds. It is the unyielding paternal power that Will Smith masterfully portrays through the midlife crisis of Chris Gardner. The climax of the movie predictably but resoundingly proved this correct, as Witter quietly came up to Gardner on the last day of his internship to announce that he had gotten the job. That is the moment of pure euphoria that the audience had silently awaited and Will Smith portrayed as he clapped his hands and wept silent tears. The anguish that Gardner had gone through are what make this movie genuine and moving, and what separates it from the rest of the cookie cutter American Dream movies. It is the director's and screenwriter's exquisite detail to the sacrifices that Gardner had to make to end up where he was, and their attempt at answering his question. What is the meaning of happiness? Ultimately, I think Gardner answered that. It was that moment of relief, of stability, that Gardner felt as he pulled himself and his family one stable job closer to a happy ending.