REVIEW : "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006) - Movie by Gabriele Muccino

Wow ... an american movie about poor "people", that is completely free of political correctness and sentimentality. I did not see that coming. And Will Smith, the rapper and Men In Black guy !! He is surprisingly good in this movie and really fits the role perfectly. And his own son plays the son and does it very good for a kid his age. Probably helps that it is his own daddy playing his movie daddy, but still.

This movie shows in all its glory, how a simple little story about a simple little family, may actually be one of the most engaging and touching stories you can imagine. I am not going on an hyperbole here, I just want to point out how satisfying it is to experience that there are actually still movie makers who find it worthwhile to tell those little stories about "ordinary" people going through hard times. Maybe it is very difficult to do it right, maybe that is why they are so rare. But this one should prove that it certainly still is possible (even if it has been 14 years since its premiere).

This is based on a true story about a man Chris Gardner, who was homeless for a year in the early 1980´s, trying to make ends meet for his family. While working as a self established salesman of some hospital equipment, he is steadily losing his touch and income is steadily falling. When they are forced to postpone taxes and rent and so on, the wife and mother of their son, leaves.

Chris thinks he has found a way out of his futile attempts at keeping up his income and applies for a job as a broker in a big company. But it seems that every time he gets one step ahead, fate intervenes and kicks him two steps back. He is constantly placed between a rock and a hard place and dilemmas keep piling up everywhere together with a set of rather stupid decisions along the way.

But even if it gets tough at times and he has to stay in a public toilet over the night at some point, he keeps going for the chance he believes he has. He has to make decisions and he has to balance between what can be gained now and what can possibly be gained in the future.

Trusting that the future will at some point hold something that is better than what he has now, eventually gets him out of his misery. The journey is not always fun going to the point where you need to be. You only have your own judgment to trust and that is what it is all about.

I liked that this story is toned down to a gentle everyday pace. It takes its time to build a notion of a grinding, day after day, attempt at keeping your nose above water, without becoming dull or boring at all. You care about Chris and his uphill battle to keep his life and family together, even when everything seems so utterly hopeless that you hardly understand where he gets the energy and stamina. It helps here that I t is a true story as it adds a sense of reality to it and the director clearly has a respect for how this man is portrayed.

It is also nice to see a story about a man taking the responsibility for a child and not the usual, the mother who grabs the child and gets the government to threaten the father away. The child is also quite positive and cooperative, while still emotionally present several times which makes it all believable. Even if the kids arc is not that big and he is dragged around from here to there all the time, it never feels like it encumberes the story.

A few times the story threatens to halt a bit, but then a new turn raises the interest again and carries it further. it stays true to telling a personal story of the main character and only uses other characters as plot structure. There is no lecturing or propagandising everywhere. There are even semi critical comments on the government just sticking their hands into peoples bank accounts to take the money they claim are theirs. Not something you hearer every day.

The emotional impact is all the more greater when a rare emotional moment appears and you really feel the words ring true and the connection between the son and his father is real. it can be a bit of a tear jerker at times specially if you understtand and can sympathise with the situation.

It is not sentimental at all, except maybe for a very few situations that is used to keep an emotional ambivalence in how to interpret the main characters personality. It is not all "the american dream" but also ideas about what happiness is and where to find it. And most incredibly, the broker business is not demonised as it usually is in any Hollywood movie you may find. I cannot remember when I last saw a movie dealing with this business making such a neutral characterisation. How nice that this is still possible. It actually makes it possible for you to bring your own ideas into the movie and build the experience for yourself. Thank you.

This is a bit of a rare gem in an otherwise social justice tilted business. I really loved it and the only little beefs I may have is that it may be about ten minutes too long and to be a real masterpiece, it has to have even more depth in the main character and the relation between the family members, which at times was a little weak and predictable. And why do we need to get the "this is what happened to the real man in the years after" text at the end. it draws it all down a nudge for me every time. Let the story stand for itself.

But it is a very good movie about a mans personal struggles in a world the pretty much do not give a damn about him and to make people give a Daman, he has to convince them that he can bring some value. This is an essential reality of any persons interaction with beings and this one gives the free market, non socialist angle, which I appreciate so much.

9/10