Pursuit of Happyness

PLOT
In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invested the family savings in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but it produced a slightly clearer image. The white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his wife, who leaves him and moves to New York. Without money or wife, but totally committed to his son Christopher, Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, fighting for a more promising career at the end of a six month - no salary - training period. There are twenty other candidates for the one position. Meanwhile, he encounters many challenges and difficulties, including a period of homelessness

REVIEW
The major part of this film is amazing in that it's an American film which appears to be 'real'. Gardner's life just seems to get worse and worse throughout the film and when he queues with down and outs in a suit, together with his son, I wondered how the richest nation on Earth could allow such a lottery approach to life!
But then I remember that Will Smith is the star and we can't have a sad ending and sure enough, shucks, and gee whiz it ends happy. The American dream is alive and well.....except for a little glitch in the middle! [Reviewed by the Nuthatch]


I personally enjoyed the film as much as one can enjoy a slog of human poverty followed by the inevitable happy ending.[Reviewed by Merlin]

Perversely I actually quite enjoyed the "slog of human poverty" as my esteemed colleague so deftly put it. I felt that the film was a great deal more 'real' than so many films which deal with a similar theme and the bleakness of the material made the moments of tenderness more beautiful and the perseverance of the main character more amazing. I had been pre-warned about the happy ending but was still left utterly cold by it. After so much suffering and hard work he certainly deserved to win but all that this winning consisted of was entering one of the strongholds of capitalism responsible for all his earlier suffering! Of course much suffering is in vain, but I felt that nothing was really gained from his earlier experiences other than proving that he was up to the job. All in all an excellent and thoughtful film ruined by the need to ensure the happy ending was stuck in (albeit from a true story) without allowing enough time to explore the consequences of the earlier material. [Reviewed by Stonechat]

The film had a compelling story line and the fact that it was true made it more moving. However, I personally found that, rather than being engaged with the main character and his struggles, I was constantly struck by the obscenity of his situation given that he was living in the richest country in the world. I think the film went some way towards questioning the American dream but fell short of making any real challenge. This is hardly surprising as the US seems to view any criticism of the free market as rampant socialism. However, nobody could begrudge Gardner his happy ending. [Reviewed by Nightjar]