This is the saddest Will Smith movie I've ever seen. But the worser it gets the more you know how it'll come out at the end.
15 Comments
12/06/06
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
66
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:165
Fresh:109
Rotten:56
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Will Smith’s heartfelt performance elevates The Pursuit of Happyness above mere melodrama.
Theatrical Release:Dec 15, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $162,586,036
Synopsis: In The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a family man struggling to make ends meet. Despite his valiant attempts to help keep the family afloat, the mother (Thandie Newton) of his... [More]
Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Dan Castellaneta, Thandie Newton
Director: Gabriele Muccino
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Reviews for The Pursuit of Happyness
Guitar-strumming hippie chicks, homeless nutcases, Chinese-speaking day care operators and non-Smith black folks -- bad; rich white stock brokers with box seats at 49ers games -- good.
12/15/06
The character of Christ... er, I mean Chris Gardner gets beaten down so much - and has a complete absence of faults - that it's really unbelievable.
12/15/06
A fairy tale in realist drag, The Pursuit of Happyness is the kind of entertainment that goes down smoothly until it gets stuck in your craw.
12/14/06
How is it that movies 'inspired by a real story' often feel more fake than those fully embedded in the realm of fiction?
12/14/06
Top CriticA message that should bring tears to the eyes of The Man everywhere.
12/13/06
[Muccino] is quite skilled at hitting all the appropriate emotional peaks and valleys, though his hard logic leaves a bit to be desired.
12/14/06
By reducing the story of homelessness to only Chris Gardner's, The Pursuit of Happyness is saying that anybody can get out of the gutter by simply really, really wanting to do better.
12/13/06
It’s not about happiness. It’s about money. The film boasts of how many millions Gardner makes. Is he happy? You bet. It’s like being forced to watch self-help videos, while Mr Motivator molests you.
01/14/07
[An] honorable but dogged effort.
12/14/06
Top CriticDeserves kudos for avoiding saccharine sentiment, but its relentless emphasis on money as the cure for all ills is depressing. They might as well have called it The Pursuit of Richyness.
01/14/07
The American Dream as white, rich and all male.
03/21/07
In his first English-language feature, Muccino plays it disappointingly safe, leaving creativity by the wayside and adopting a conservative by-the-numbers style. The result is terribly maudlin and predictable.
12/14/06
This is one of the few American movies to deal with how people live and survive. It admires smart brokers but also feels for the many people down below, and we know that Chris will not claim his 'happyness' by becoming a cold fish in a glass office.
12/15/06
Like other institutions designed to separate you from your money, Hollywood grows a conscience every year at this time.
12/15/06
Relentlessly grim but in a phony, Hollywood kinda way.
01/14/07
... this is a slick studio production with a huge movie star and top professionals occupying every production role so that the polish of this well-made film makes even homelessness look neat and tidy.
12/07/06
Top CriticA true story told in a deeply heartwarming style: there's never any doubt where this film is going.
12/06/06
Few on-screen father-son relationships have felt more authentic than that depicted by Will Smith and his real-life son in The Pursuit of Happyness.
12/15/06
Top CriticA string of annoyances that no doubt riddled the real life of Chris Gardner, but when put in a Hollywood film, feel quite set up like dominos that fall with cliché timing.
12/21/06
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