"This part of my life is called mediocre,"
or so one expects Will Smith's narration to state at some point
in this unchallenging drama. Based on a true story, The
Pursuit of Happyness follows single father Chris Gardner
(Will Smith) through his struggle to gain financial security
to provide for his son, played by Smith's real-life son, Jaden.
Chris goes about attaining his goal strangely though, by taking
a six-month, unpaid internship at Dean Witter.
Now I've always had issues with "based on
reality" movies, especially when they are marketed as such
seemingly to get away with not making a well-conceived picture.
For instance, while watching Chris and Christopher sleeping
in the bathroom of a train station, or placing all their hope
in selling a broken piece of medical equipment, it's hard not
to ask why Chris couldn't have taken a night job at McDonald's
to pay for the pair to live in the inexpensive hotel which provides
refuge when they're first evicted. And time and again, Chris
is the victim of extremely poor luck. So poor is his luck that
these consecutive events lessen the sense of realism in the
film, appearing to have been added to make his journey seem
more heroic.
The result of these cumulative problems is that
the film remains uninspiring despite all the filmmakers' efforts.
Virtually every element of the film is delivered too straightforwardly,
expecting nothing of the audience, and in turn providing them
with nothing. Neither script nor director asks anything of the
performers either, and Smith phones in his performance without
breaking a sweat. The only cast member worth praising, in my
opinion, is eight-year-old Jaden Smith, who (naturally) has
dynamic and organic chemistry with his father. The film focuses
and these two for most of the film, and in many scenes Jaden
is the one who carries the viewer's attention. Maybe it's cause
kids are inherently cute. Or maybe he's got his eyes on daddy's
world's-top-movie-star position.
It's also worth noting that Smith provides no
music for the soundtrack, which he often does for his cinematic
vehicles. Instead, we are graced with a wonderful mix of early-eighties
soul and r&b. The final credits roll over not Smith's rapping,
but a simple ballad by Seal, which I think will garner him recognition
as award season kicks into full gear.
The Pursuit of Happyness isn't a bad
film, per se, but it hardly seems deserving of the award nominations
and box office success it has been receiving in the last few
weeks. It's clear to me that the filmmakers were too concerned
with the pursuit of happyness to consider whether or not the
film would leave the audience with a sense of it.
