Directed by
Gabriele Muccino
110 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
The Pursuit of Happyness
There is some merit in Gabriele Muccino’s English language debut. As a depiction of the travails of modern man trying to make his way in the world it is quite effective. Where it falls down (and this is like the inverted version of Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down, 1993) is in its egregious compliance with the ideology of the American Dream. Apparently it’s “inspired by a real story" but it plays more like an illustration of typical self-help bromides than anything remotely truthful. Perhaps that;s why co-producer and star Will Smith brought in an Italian director for the job. It’s hard to believe that any reasonably intelligent American director would have signed up to peddle such unreserved and carefully massaged hokum.Smith plays Chris Gardner, a San Franciscan struggling to keep a roof over his family’s head. He bought into a business selling bone density machines but it proved to be a flop. His wife (Thandie Newton) is working double shifts at a dry cleaners and as they sink under a pile of debts she wants out. Then the numerically-gifted Chris thinks he can turn things around by becoming a stockbroker. Hey-ho and whaddya know but Chris becomes a millionaire and there ya go son (Smith’s real life son, Jaden, plays the cute-as-a-button son) don’t let nobody tell ya, ya can’t do what ya put your mind to. Most people are going to have trouble with the unexamined assumption that wealth brings happyness (sic) whilst the fact that Chris is depicted as an all-round good guy with his querelous wife quiescently leaving him with the son he wants to keep rings hollow . And how despite being homeless he manages to turn up every day to kick ass roping suckers into buying his firm’s financial products, not to mention that he keeps losing his machines and then finding them, or that hospital doctors write out cheques to buy his machines all seem to beggar belief. Maybe it is true but it certainly doesn’t feel like it and one tends to go with one's feelings
The realization of Gardner’s story is blandly typical of the rags-to-riches narrative and made even more so by Smith’s prosaically gratuitous voice-over. To be fair, Smith, best known these days as an action hero, does a decent job in the role but the film itself is strictly for the gullible.
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