The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)

Starring Will Smith

Will Smith takes a serious turn in The Pursuit of Happiness, and creates a wonderful, thoughtful, touching movie about a man who has to deal with becoming homeless. I’ve loved Smith when he played larger-than-life characters in movies like Men In Black and Independence Day. Now, it’s also a pleasure to see him soar in a serious dramatic role.

The movie is set in San Francisco in the early 1980s, and is based on a true story. Smith plays Chris Gardner, a medical device salesman for whom nothing seems to be going right. His car is ticketed, booted, and towed. The IRS is hounding him about the money he owes them. He can’t sell the medical devices he invested his savings in to save his life. His wife leaves him, convinced he’s a loser.

Things go from bad to worse when he’s evicted from his apartment and then the hotel he moves to, thus finding himself homeless. Plus he’s caring for his young son, which doubles his troubles.
At the same time, Gardner is trying to better himself. When young he was tops in his High School class. He again received recognition in the Navy. He has a knack for mathematics; there’s a wonderful sequence with a Rubik’s Cube that proves his abilities to a potential employer.

Gardner decides to apply for a stockbroker trainee program. There are a few catches: it’s a six-month program, but doesn’t pay anything. Also, only one out of the 20 trainees will be offered a job at the end of the training period. Gardner decides to go for it anyway.

What follows is a portrait of a man who wants something badly enough to do all that’s required in order to achieve it. The scenes where he’s waiting in line at a homeless shelter with his son in order to get space to sleep that night are particularly moving.

Jaden Smith plays Gardner’s son; he’s Will Smith’s actual son, and presents a touching portrait of a little boy struggling with wrenching worries about his missing mother and his trouble-beset father. It’s hard for him to grasp how bad things are for them; at one time in the film he says, “Dad, I want to go home.” Dad, of course, finds it difficult to explain to him that they have no home: this is it. There are several such heartbreaking moments in the film.

While this film is serious, and depicts very difficult times for a man and his son, it is life-affirming and uplifting. Will Smith has a knack for transmuting just about any movie into gold, and carries this one wonderfully, assisted by a good supporting cast. This film is suitable for all audiences.