The Pursuit of Happyness
Screenplay by Steve Conrad.
Directed by Gabriele Muccino.
Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, c2007.
- Starring:
- Will Smith
- Thandie Newton
- Brian Howe
- James Karen
- Dan Castellaneta
Will Smith works hard for your tears in this piece of seasonal uplift. And while The Pursuit of Happyness isn't as sentimental as you may have feared (the cutesy spelling of "happiness" sets off warning bells), this true-life Horatio Alger tale never becomes especially involving either.
Smith plays Chris Gardner, a San Francisco man who struggles to maintain hope and dignity when circumstances force him and his son Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, the star's bona fide offspring) to join the city's legions of homeless people.
Such is the obviousness of Gardner's ability and essential goodness, the story's outcome is never in doubt even before he wins an internship at a brokerage firm. (This being the early '80s, he impresses the execs by completing a Rubik's cube.) Gabriele Muccino, who directed the original Italian version of The Last Kiss, manufactures suspense by having Smith frantically run around whenever he's late for an appointment. The director has a surer touch with the quieter scenes of Gardner trying to shield his son from their desperate straits, but those too are undermined by Smith's unnecessary voice-over and Andrea Guerra's sentimental score. If only the rough edges that give The Pursuit of Happyness some texture hadn't been sanded off so swiftly.
Review from Eye Weekly -- JA
Compare to the original Entertaining Non-Fiction book by Chris Gardner.