Movie Review: The Pursuit of Happyness

I hate alternative spelling. The spelling in the title was enough for me to know I had no desire to see The Pursuit of Happyness, However, since Will Smith received an Oscar Nomination for his performance, I caved in to my better judgment. Let’s just say that as a filmmaker I have already vowed to quit the business if he wins. Fortunately, I seriously doubt he will.

The Pursuit of Happynessis based on the true story of Chris Gardner and his quest to become a stock broker to help provide a better life for his son and avoid shuffling from shelter to shelter. But you can guess all of that from the trailer. Many times films inspired by true stories come across as being more phony than pure fiction, but sometimes it works. Usually it shows someone over coming adversity to find some payoff in the end.

There is no payoff in The Pursuit of Happyness. Well, there are two sentences typed out at the end telling the audience Chris Gardner went on to start his own firm and sell his minority share in a multi-million dollar deal. But it doesn’t actually show any pay out for his hard work. The Pursuit of Happyness starts in a very dark and poor place. Unfortunately, it stays there for two hours. Chris and his family started off in a bad spot and go on to find an even worse place in life.

The biggest problem with The Pursuit of Happyness is it takes far too long for there to be a glimmer of hope, let alone the chance of any follow through. Going into the film, you know he is going to get the job, they simply don’t make movies based on the lives of people who don’t make it. But to have the happy ending come through as text at the end of an emotional diatribe is just as disappointing. Heck, I would have had a hint of ‘happyness’ had he given his son a brand new Captain America in the end, you know as some symbol their life was on the up and up. The end sucked out any life the movie could have potentially had.

The other problem is the voice-over narration. I rarely enjoy movies with a lot of voice-over and find very few do it well. The Pursuit of Happyness has far too much voice-over and little of it adds to the story on any level. It just made me nervous. Not nervous in the sense that the movie was tapping into my emotions, but anxious that the movie was never going to end. Will Smith’s voice-over simply made two hours seem to drag on forever.

This isn’t to say I don’t admire the real Chris Gardner. I find it incredibly admirable that he overcame all that he did and wrote about it. I think it is wonderful his story is used to teach others their dreams are achievable. I just think the film bastardized his story. The Pursuit of Happyness had great potential to be an amazing movie, it simply lacked any follow-through. In fact, simply watch the trailer and see a far better version of the movie.