The Pursuit of Happyness

It’s 1981. Yuppies everywhere have flocked to such financially flourishing cities as New York and San Francisco in hopes of getting their first taste of success in the Reagan era. While they immerse themselves in a world full of materialism, greed, and outright superficiality, 27-year-old Chris Gardner is struggling just to make ends meet. He invested all of his money into a bone density scanner that most doctors refer to as a “luxury" that they don’t really need. He’s broke, scared, and yet not quite ready to give up on his dreams. His wife has had enough of his inability to provide for them and threatens to run off with their son until he gets things straightened out.

What happens after that is the subject of Italian director Gabriele Muccino’s inspiring new film “The Pursuit of Happyness" (misspelling intended) which follows Chris’s remarkable journey from living in relative obscurity to becoming the head of his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm.

Since Chris is such an easy character to root for, Will Smith is the perfect fit for a role of this magnitude and he undoubtedly deserves any accolades that might come his way. He turns Chris into an emotionally complex character who is willing to do whatever he can to make a better life for his son , even if it means sleeping in shelters and subway bathrooms along the way. His luck changes when he hears about a competitive internship at Dean Witter Reynolds that will award just one person with a job in the end, but he decides to go for it anyway.

Since the program is essentially designed for people with financial stability, there is no salary involved and Chris is forced to go from shelter to shelter with his son until they can afford a place of their own. His life immediately becomes consumed with nothing but work as he has to attend the internship during the day, while still selling medical equipment in his spare time.

Just when his situation couldn’t get more desperate, he is hit with a $400 penalty for being late on his taxes and is left with just $23 in the bank.

Despite his economic shortcomings, his time at Dean Witter has been well spent and he is rapidly becoming one of the top interns in the group. He has been getting all of his work done in almost half the time, because he has to be at the shelter by 5:00 p.m. to ensure a room for the night. Smith’s charm and quick-wittedness are in full effect here as he delivers one the finest and most delicate performances of his career to date.

His real-life son Jaden, plays 5-year-old Christopher Gardner and their heartfelt chemistry on-screen makes them one of the most compelling parent-child pairings since Ryan and Tatum O’Neal. If I seem to be talking a lot about Smith, it’s because there’s not much else worth talking about. He gives an extraordinary performance in an otherwise ordinary film that would be nowhere without his invaluable cinematic presence.

I will say that it’s probably the most depressing film I’ve seen since 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby" and if your heart is not wrenched at some point, it’s probably non-existent.

Although we’re aware that everything has to get better, we still feel satisfied when Chris finally gets what he deserves.Overall, Muccino’s English-language debut is a pure, satisfying account of Gardner’s inspirational life story, but it never really falls into the category of being a great film.

It does, however, serve as a personal showcase for Smith to finally shine under the spotlight and gain further credibility as a dramatic performer. Chris’s story is one that needed to be told and while reading the closing credits, we realize that his pursuit of happiness had finally ended.

- *** out of 4