The Pursuit of Happyness

The Work:
The Pursuit of Happyness

The Artist(s):
Directed by Gabriele Muccino. Written by Steve Conrad. Starring Will Smith, Jaden Smith, and Thandie Newton.

Description:

Critic: Will Smith is Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman who isn't exactly living the American Dream. His young son (Jaden Smith) is being raised by a television and his resentful wife (Thandie Newton) works double shifts in a hotel laundry to make ends meet. With his family sinking slowly into debt, Gardner has a chance encounter that changes his life when he decides, despite the odds against him, that he will become a stockbroker. Gardner must persevere through homelessness, destitution and other setbacks to keep his little family together and pursue his dream.

Consumer: (chewing) Did I miss anything? I was just making a sandwich.

Purpose:

Consumer: Let me take this one, okay? The goal of this movie is to make you come out of the theater feeling good. And maybe win Will Smith an Oscar. He acts his ass off in this movie, by the way.

Critic: I agree that the overall attempt is for a Hortatio Alger effect with a little grit thrown in. This is a classic “hero” movie. Take a character, put them in danger, give them a way out, and then dangle them over the failure/danger pit for the next hour before finally allowing the hero’s good qualities to deliver them from evil and give them possession of their dream.

What Works:

Critic: Thandie Newton as the wife is, I think, good in some spots. There’s a wonderful exchange early in the movie when, oozing desperation, she asks Will Smith how she’s supposed to pick up their son, feed him, put him to bed, and still get back for her second shift in the laundry. That exchange communicates everything you need to know about the family’s circumstances.

Consumer: And there’s another scene where she’s in the bathroom with her uniform unbuttoned, showing off her body. That’s actually pretty nice. You don’t usually get skin in these inspirational movies.

Critic: I’m ignoring you. Jaden Smith is good as the son. The plot is pretty straightforward and Will Smith has the gravitas necessary to pull off his role. San Francisco looks beautiful. There’s a scene at a basketball court with the city as the backdrop that is particularly well-done because it shows Chris Gardner in view of San Francisco (the promised land) but separated from this dream by a tall fence. There are overtones of captivity (the prison of poverty, etc.). The whole scene works well.

Consumer: I cried at the end. I was surprised.

Critic: We’ll get to the ending in the next section.

Consumer: And Will Smith is a good runner. He runs more in this movie than those dudes in Chariots of Fire.

Critic: That’s true, Will Smith does lots of sprinting. As a matter of fact, I’ll bet he’s got eight or nine scenes where he’s running full steam toward or away from something. That’s part of the Oscar-worthiness of this performance. Critics like it when you run. Remember Forrest Gump? Remember Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man? I was thinking of Will Smith’s running as the equivalent of Jaime Foxx’s head-waggling and ivory-tickling in Ray. You know Will Smith was thinking, “If Jamie Foxx can win an Oscar…”

In the course of the movie Will Smith completes almost all the prerequisites for an Oscar (the “losing my mind” scene, the “strength in the face of obstacles” scene, the “I’m tender on the inside" scene) but forgets to melt down in front of a mirror, which I think is absolutely critical to an Oscar win. You know this one, where the guy stands in front of a mirror, usually late at night, usually all alone, and breaks into horrific sobbing as he comes to a full realization of his plight. Doesn’t happen in this movie. No wonder Forrest Whittaker won.

What Doesn't Work:

Critic: Unfortunately I’m going to have to pick the ending as something that doesn’t work, but let me explain why: the ending is not bad in itself, but is not a sufficient payoff for the suffering inflicted on us during the previous 116 minutes. There’s very little lightness in the plot. All the characters are deadly serious about their situation, and of course, that’s certainly believable, since homelessness and poverty are serious issues. So while I can agree with the plot in theory (Chris Gardner encounters setback after setback, his survival and his dream are in doubt), in practice it made me resentful. How about a little comic relief? What, Will Smith can’t crack a joke? Where’s the Fresh Prince when you need him? So by the time I got to the ending, which is fine in itself, I’d suffered too much darkness to be satisfied with one pleasant and well-constructed “triumph” scene.

Consumer: Yeah, there was too much poverty. Poverty sucks, man. I don’t need to go to a movie to see that. But the ending made me cry a lot. After this movie I decided to become a single dad. It looks like a lot of fun if you can make it through the poverty part.

Verdict:

Consumer: Are you kidding? No way. There’s no explosions and no sex. The only way you should rent this movie is if you want to look sensitive in front of a girl. Just let the tears flow and don’t hold back.

Critic: I’ll give it a favorable verdict for its story, which is ultimately uplifting, for its acting, which is decent, and for the restraint shown by the director. Happyness has certain deficiencies which prevent it from moving into the “very good” category, but it’s not bad. I won’t watch it twice but don’t regret watching it once.