Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 169
Fresh: 113 | Rotten: 56
Will Smith's heartfelt performance elevates The Pursuit of Happyness above mere melodrama.
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 13
Will Smith's heartfelt performance elevates The Pursuit of Happyness above mere melodrama.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 511,179
The rousing, true-life story of a single dad who went from living on the streets to owning his own brokerage firm is brought to the big screen by superstar Will Smith, appearing for the first time opposite his real-life son Jaden Smith. Set in early-'80s San Francisco, the film charts the hard times and eventual comeback of Chris Gardner, a suddenly single salesman who has custody of his son, but finds that providing for the two of them is a challenge in the increasingly unstable economic
Dec 15, 2006 Wide
Mar 27, 2007
$162.6M
Sony Pictures
All Critics (169) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (120) | Rotten (57) | DVD (24)
This is Smith as you've never seen him -- an unsure, struggling, frustrated guy trying to hold together his family and failing.
As cynical as I am, I have to admit I was completely won over by Smith's sincere and deeply effective work as a guy who was knocked down again and again, but refused to stay on the canvas.
Some people will see The Pursuit of Happyness as a glorification of capitalism, but the movie is much less about 'getting' than it is about 'not having.'
The Pursuit of Happyness can't imagine anything worse than being poor. Except maybe being surrounded by poor people.
Will Smith has the right quality for the role -- he's an easy man to root for -- but he augments this by channeling some inner quality of desperation and need.
A movie star who can slip easily into high-beam mode, Smith gives a restrained and nuanced turn.
The Pursuit of Happyness is a very Hollywood film, which could be good or bad depending on your point of view. It tries very hard to be profound and inspirational, but ultimately it's not up to the task.
Counterfeit emotion and submerged racism
Sap, sentiment, and hokey plot devices bog down an otherwise down to earth story.
Smith turns in a career-capping performance, and director Gabriele Muccino ingeniously turns the material inward, cautioning us all to be grateful for what we have, for we're closer to the edge than we think.
Will Smith is getting all the awards buzz, but it's his real-life son, Jaden, who transcends all expectations in Happyness.
Rags-to-riches tale is predictable but well-acted.
Even the most superficially glossy of surfaces can't completely extinguish the genuine emotions running beneath them here.
Few films so convincingly portray the titanic struggle that some people face day in and day out just to survive.
solidno napravljen holivudski proizvod
Expects us to swallow Capitalism's biggest lie: if you can't 'make it', then it's your own stupid fault.
Muccino skates along the edge of melodrama in this sweet film, with the tone just bordering on the syrupy, at times. That makes it a good, but not a great film to watch.
This is Will Smith's movie from start to finish and he carries it wonderfully.
[A] calculatedly emotional, sterilizingly cleancut drama.
Hokey title, but sometimes movie is good.
Not terrific, but is not really bad. The Pursuit of Happyness is weak and very sentimentalist. Anyway, the movie presents a moving story and good actings. Fresh.
February 1, 2012Super Reviewer
-Spoiler alert- "The Pursuit of HappYness" is an okay movie. Will Smith's performance is, of course, great. The direction is what you'd expect. However, my main gripe about this movie is how it hits audiences over the head over and over with how horrible Will Smith's life is. There is very little that audiences can
August 16, 2011Super Reviewer
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