The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness ***

"The Pursuit of Happyness" is one of the rare Will Smith movies that you'll see where he isn't holding some kind of weapon. Be it a boxing glove, or a gun, or a rifle, or even an alien blaster, it seems like it always has something in those hands of his. The only thing that he is holding in this film is his son's hand, and also sometimes a bone density scanner. More on that later. In any case, I like this Will Smith-the kinder and gentler and more human one. And in the end he is what saves this film, and his performance alone is worth the price of the admission ticket. He's quite good here, but I've never really had a problem with Smith. I like how he expands his roles a lot-even when he's playing a guy with a gun in his hand, at least it's always a different gun.

"The Pursuit of Happyness" has Smith as Chris Gardener, a down on his luck man looking for the American Dream. He lives in a broken down apartment building where he owes roughly two months rent, but he is doing everything that he can do to make life better for his depressed wife and his young son. Chris is good by nature-pretty much because when he was a kid his father was never there for him. So he will do whatever it takes to make sure that he has a job to take care of his son, and he won't ever let him be taken from him. Chris got rid of all of his life savings a few years ago to invest in a bone density scanner-and he received a few dozen of them, and now has to go from hospital to hospital to try and sell them. Little did he know when he signed up for the deal was that hospitals see the scanners as a luxury, and do not find it necessary to shell out the extra cash for them. Eventually his wife leaves him-she's had enough, but Chris demands that his son, Christopher, stay with him. One day on the job, Chris sees a man in the street with a beautiful car. He asks the man simply, "What do you do?" and the man replies "Stock broker." Chris decides that he could give that a shot-he's good with numbers, and he could do the Rubic's Cube is about ten minutes, so why not? He becomes involved in an internship at Dean Witter Reynolds-the one chosen at the end will get a job at the company. And so begins Chris' battle to get this job that he so very needs, all at the same time trying to care for his son, and trying to rescue his bone density scanners that he somehow manages to loose.

"The Pursuit of Happyness" isn't a perfect film in any way. It is pretty obvious how this story will end, but Smith plays this man so well that at times he makes it unpredictable as to what he will do next. And it's a good thing that he is on target here, because pretty much every single character is here simply used as a plot device. There is the angry and depressed wife that has to leave him to give Smith more motivation. There is the friendly stoke broker with the heart of gold that pushes for Smith to get a shot at the internship-even after he shows up to the interview after getting out of jail, unshowered and covered from head to toe in white paint. (At least it was white, for his pure and good nature). There is the big stoke boss, and the CEO that ends up befriending Smith and his little boy. Hell, even the son seems to be a plot device, but too a lesser extent. It is in that way that "The Pursuit of Happyness" fails to be anything more than entertaining-and it is not as inspirational as it thinks it is. Maybe if everybody in the film wasn't a character from another movie, it could have moved me a bit more. You won't shed any tears watching this though.

It's a little too long for it's own good, and a lot of the script is padded with repetitive situations. For example there are a lot of chase sequences-more so than in some action movies. There is a scene where Chris leaves his bone density scanner with a woman in the streets who steals it. There is a chase scene as he tries to get it back. There is a scene where he doesn't have enough money to pay the taxi driver. He flees. There is a chase scene as he tries to run from the angry cabbie. There is a second time that a bone density scanner is stolen from him, and yet another chase scene as he tries to get it back. Perhaps the second scanner chase could have been cut and nothing would have been lost.

But like I said, the obvious and cheesy script has it's attributes highlighted by Will Smith. The man can seriously act when he isn't playing an angry cop or. . . well he's usually an angry cop. When he is given more to do than kill robots or have car chases in the middle of a freeway, it shows that he does have talent. And the film is entertaining at times. It was fun to watch Smith beat the clock to try and solve the Rubic's Cube before leaving the boss at a very important meeting. And it was smart to get his actual son to play his movie son, as the father/son relationship wasn't acted, it was probably close to real. This isn't an Oscar contender for sure, except perhaps Best Actor, but it is enjoyable, and it has moments of real entertainment. It's heart is in the right place even though the screenwriter probably wrote it with his eyes closed. See it for Smith and not for the story, and you won't be disappointed. He is well worth the trip to the theatre.