The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
The Pursuit of Happyness
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Release Date: December 2006
CAST
Will Smith: Chris Gardner
Jaden Smith: Christopher Gardner
Thandie Newton: Linda Gardner
Brian Howe: Jay Twistle
In The Pursuit of Happyness, the latest inspirational, based-on-a-true-story film to hit theaters, Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, a down-on-his-luck salesman who, after his wife (Thandie Newton) leaves him and their five-year-old son (Smith’s real-life son, Jaden), decides to enter into a internship program at the brokerage firm Dean-Witter in hopes of being hired to work there full-time as a stock broker. The catch: the internship is unpaid (and has only a very small chance of leading to a real job), and with his bank account hovering dangerously near empty and a son to support, Chris must resort to all kinds of measures to survive the sixth-month training program.
The real beauty of the movie is in the performances, particularly Smith’s. I’ve loved Will Smith since his Fresh Prince days (I can still rap the whole opening credits to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, though somewhat awkwardly, since I’m a white girl), but even I was a little surprised at the actor choice for this role of a modest, decent, hard-working man disappointed by what his life has turned out to be. I would have picked Don Cheadle for the role in a heart beat; Will Smith, not so much. And I would have been wrong. Hair graying at the temples, trademark energy dialed down a few notches, Smith plays Gardner with just the right mix of determined optimism and world-weariness. He has all of the movie’s best moments-fitting, since it’s his story being told, and any one of them should cement him an Oscar nomination: his frenzied desperation as he attempts to solve a Rubik’s cube (the successful completion of which actually gets him accepted into the internship program); the loving, soul-hungry way he cradles his son as he nods along to a beautiful, stirring hymn in a homeless-shelter church service; and the sudden, immediate reddening of his eyes with unshed tears as the movie reaches its astonishingly quiet resolution.
The movie’s best, most heart-wrenching scene comes after Chris and his son, Christopher, have been evicted from their apartment and, subsequently, their motel room; without any place to stay, they are forced to spend the night in the men’s bathroom of a San Francisco subway system. The door locked behind him, Chris cradles his son’s head in his lap while Christopher sleeps on a make-shift bed of toilet paper; when someone attempts to come in, Chris shelters his son’s ears and holds the door still with his foot so that the noise won’t wake his son. He silently sobs throughout the entire scene, the realization of what he’s been brought to sinking in.
Jaden also turns in an astonishingly good performance as a believably loving, devoted kid. He’s not a saint, but neither is he the sort of self-centered brat depicted in television and film today. You understand why his father would risk everything to give this kid a better life.
Thandie Newton disappears less than halfway through the film-her character moves to New York-and though it’s a necessary plot development (since, you know, that’s what actually happened), it’s an unfortunate one. She’s brittle and angry as Linda, Chris’s disappointed wife, but it’s impossible to hate her; she’s too real and fragile for that. My personal feelings for Newton aside (would it kill her to eat a damn sandwich?), it’s a solid performance that verges on great at times.
The Pursuit of Happyness-and yes, the spelling is intentional; it’s seeing Happyness misspelled at his son’s daycare that helps inspire Chris to pursue the job at Dean-Witter-is the rare inspirational movie that actually managed to inspire me. I left feeling-optimistic isn’t the right word, but hopeful. The movie’s flaws, such as the slightly excessive use of voice-over narration, are easy to overlook, especially in light of the performances you get in exchange. Here’s hoping that Will Smith gets the Oscar nomination he so richly deserves.
**** out of *****