The Pursuit of Happyness Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)December 14th, 2006
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
Sad, sappy and rarely believable, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS is a tedious tearjerker that emphasizes its claim to have been "inspired by a true story." It is just the sort of film that makes viewers angry for having been manipulated so much and so often. Do we really think that a pedestrian who gets hit by a car so hard that he broke the windshield would literally run back into his work as an unpaid intern? And do we really believe that there are people stupid enough to ask a hippie stranger to hold a valuable piece of property, yet bright enough to rise from rags to riches?
Director Gabriele Muccino (RICORDATI DI ME), working from a cliché-ridden script by Steve Conrad (THE WEATHER MAN), has trouble constructing a single frame that doesn't seem designed solely to open up our tear ducts. Still, crying would have one use. It would keep you from having to suffer through Phedon Papamichael's dull, grainy and downright ugly cinematography.
This story about a down-on-his-luck salesman who lives in a homeless shelter stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner. A single dad, Chris lives with his decidedly cute son named Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Will Smith's son). Early in the story, Chris's wife (Thandie Newton) leaves him, since she has lost all faith in him to ever make it.
As he tries to make a living selling bone density scanners, which look like portable sewing machines, Chris realizes that buying a room full of them from the manufacturer was one of his more foolish acts. The devices are almost unsaleable.
One day, Chris sees his future. It is as a rich stock broker. But to become one, he has to work in a long and completely unpaid intern program for Dean Witter. Although he makes money for the company, they don't pay him. And, at the end of the cut-throat program, only one person is offered a position, a real one with an actual salary.
Along the way to success, Chris is thrown in jail for unpaid parking tickets. Once released the next morning, he runs to his interview. Shirtless, smelly, sweaty and covered in paint -- he was painting his apartment when the cops arrived to arrest him -- Chris still gets offered a position in the highly competitive program. If you can believe this scene, you can believe absolutely anything. Personally, I was ready to puke.
Of course, the melodrama ends with lots of text on the screen to tell us how the real life Chris Gardner went on to become an entrepreneur and a multimillionaire. His story might be inspirational. This movie, however, has just opposite effect.
(Finally, the title is intentionally misspelled by the filmmakers, which is one of the many all too-cute parts of the production.)
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS runs 1:59. It is rated PG-13 for "some language" and would be acceptable for kids around 9 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, December 15, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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