Review of The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) by Spangle — 02 Jan 2017

An undeniably inspirational story, The Pursuit of Happyness is a good film that, even if flawed, is a good film that provides great entertainment. Largely well-written, the film stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner. A man who is coping with his wife leaving him, raising a son, and being homeless, Chris partakes in an internship program to become a stock broker. A real life fairy tale, The Pursuit of Happyness shows the American dream coming true with Chris working hard and being rewarded for this effort. While it is sentimental and safe along the way, it is hard to deny that the film is often incredibly powerful and thoroughly engaging throughout.

Pairing Will Smith with his son Jaden in the lead roles, one of the greatest assets of the film is the father-son relationship. In the role of the son, Jaden Smith is adorable. With childish jokes and innocent confusion over their situation, he turns in a shockingly solid performance here that makes you both smile and fight back tears at times. Yet, the true powerhouse here is Will Smith. Expertly portraying the down-on-his-luck Gardner, Smith is incredible in this film. Turning in a determined and emotionally vulnerable performance, Smith shows that he is more than just an action hero. He certainly does utilize his natural charisma in the film, but at all times, his performance feels achingly authentic and realistic. He may be charismatic, but you know that a broken man is just below the surface.

As has been said before, the film's plot greatly resembles classics such as The Bicycle Thieves. Though a true story, the film's narrative and plotting fit closely to the rags to the riches formula, which makes the story itself quite predictable. When things can get worse, they do. However, the film will always wind up happy because he has to become rich at some point. Thus, the film's story represents some pretty typical writing. Fortunately, as mentioned before, the writing's greatest strength is its characters. With the father and son duo incredibly well-rounded characters, the film is elevated significantly. The wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), is not really explored, but this is also not her story. She is a supporting part and we never see her thought process because the film is about her husband. Thus, it is not really an oversight of the film. As such, as a character study, The Pursuit of Happyness is incredibly successful as it creates characters that are easy to root for and then it drops you inside their mind. As a result, significant pathos is evoked when seeing a man who works so hard to try and better himself and his child suffer mightily.

Sweet and sentimental, The Pursuit of Happyness is not a great film. It is an easy watch that is guaranteed to move you as a result of Chris Gardner's story. Will Smith brings charisma and emotion to the role, while bringing along a great relationship with his son Jaden to the film. Together, the duo help to elevate the film above the Hallmark/Lifetime trappings of the story into a very successful and entertaining piece of entertainment. While cliched and predictable, the film never ceases to be engaging and rise above the cliches through the aforementioned acting and great characters.