The Pursuit of Happyness: Movie Review

The Pursuit of Happyness: The Movie Review

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Synopsis

In 2006 Will Smith and his son are the stars of a film, The Pursuit of Happyness, A story about poor become riches, a tale about love, family and pursuing the dream.

Will Smith as Christopher Gardner, a salesman struggling so hard to make ends meet for his wife (Thandie Newton) and his son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith).  As the family financial becomes big, his wife suffers under pressure and makes decisions to leave Christopher Gardner and their son.

Christopher Gardner's luck goes from bad to worse, because he and his son have evicted from their home and must survive on the street of San Francisco.  Gardner and his son have to move from one place to another place to find shelter where ever they can find.  They used to spending one night in a subway bathroom.

Things started to change and Gardner's luck seems to have a positive future for him when he applies for an internship with a stock brokerage firm.  Gardner with high ambition starts to battle and make a stand in front of other competitors in hope that he will get a post in the company.

In this film Smith and his son Jaden Smith bring an emotional depth to the characters they play.  Smith's role as Christopher Gardner in this film changed a lot much different from those characters he plays in his previous films, as known to be less serious and more fun characters.

(Will Smith) takes serious and tackles the role with a determined precision and turns out an outstanding performance, which is already generating talk of an Oscar.  Even though most of the scenes in the film have a very deep emotional impact, Smith’s cautious optimism and ambitious nature make us want to root for him succeed.  Frankly, Smith could easily been play a syrupy sweet character but Smith choose to let his real emotions came out and adding a layer of realism.

In this movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith son (Jaden Smith) proves to be natural as well.  Jaden plays the role of a child whose life and ergonomic background is so different from his own doesn’t seem to be a challenge for the young actor like himself.  In the movie Jaden seems to have a true understanding of the character’s emotion and he expresses it easily.

Thandie Newton also gives a good performance as Gardner’s wife who becomes so emotionally distressed and she makes the difficult choice to leave her husband and child.  Recently, Newton is promoting the movie and she said she wants the audiences to feel her character which deeply in pain rather than irresponsible as an uncaring evil woman.  Her representation of the troubled women goes fine line between the two.

The Pursuit of Happyness is not mainly a story about a father’s love to his son and working hard to achieve dreams and change their live.  This film is also representing a true sadness of the problem of homeless people in our society.  What makes The Pursuit of Happyness is so powerful and touches every single heart who watched it as it is based on a true story.  The problems that Gardner faces are problems actually faced by many people in our society hence that is why this film goes deep to our heart.

Whoever is familiar with Gardner’s story which was featured on the television program in 2003, will not be shocked of how this film ends.  On the other hand, I found myself wanting to know more and see from the ends part of Gardner’s life.  I think that is why this film is being titled The Pursuit of Happyness.

As a whole, this movie is not for those looking for the feel-good movie that will leave you with pleasant sensations.  Instead, it is a touching fictional representing of problems that faced by many people nowadays.

Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something.

Not even me.

You got a dream, you got to protect it.

People can’t do something themselves.

They want to tell you that you can’t do it.

You want something, go get it.  Period.

Message

After watching the movie many times, I can feel that the movies gives a lot of messages to audiences which can be related to one's life.  Thus, I come up and gather some of the messages potrayed and also lessons from this movie.

1. We must have effort if we to be success

        From this film we can conclude that every success must begin with high business.  We can see in this movie where ‘Chris’ is willing to work until midnight to support his family.  Although at one time his wife left him and his son because she is not willing to live hard, but he still tried to convince his son that he will succeed one day.  He is also willing to coach in the company's shares even though he knows it will not be given salary.  He was trying to constantly revise it to be the best coach for appointment to a permanent employee in the company.  He never stopped making efforts and finally he becomes one of the employees in the company.  After several years working at the company he had opened the company's own shares of the firm, Gardner Rich in 1987.  Lastly In 2006, he sold a minority stake in his brokerage firm in a multi-million dollar deal.

2. We must have good attitude to be success

        In this film, we can evaluate the attitude in which ‘Chris’ did not give up, patient and honest.  These attitutes, finally leads him to achieve what he wanted.  He never gave up despite many challenges happened to him and always patient to what had happened.  Among the challenges that he had to face is when he lost the scanner machine, get out from his rental house and become homeless.  Although he faces problems, he never neglected his responsibilities as a father and always tries to fullfil his requests.  He is also willing to help others even though he knows he does not have enough money.  With an attitude of patience and high determination that exist in himself, he had opened the company's own shares of the firm. 

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