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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
The whole thing works. This earnest, modest, sweet little ode to paternal love is meant to warm the cockles of our hearts in a season overrun with cockle-warming, and even a recalcitrant Scrooge may sniff back a few salty droplets.
perfectly respectable, if simplistic
There's nothing new here, just a whole lot of the old dependable. The difference is that the old dependable is above average.
This is Smith as you've never seen him -- an unsure, struggling, frustrated guy trying to hold together his family and failing.
Top CriticFew films so convincingly portray the titanic struggle that some people face day in and day out just to survive.
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This is Will Smith's triumph, and it's worth a look alone to see this tiresome actor in a role that requires a rare amount of patience from him.
Gardner's fight is everyman's fight... to remain true to his material objectives without sacrificing that which really matters to him-- his trusting little shadow.
It's the picture's lifelike approach, from the immediacy of Italian director Gabriele Muccino's use of a handheld camera to screenwriter Steven Conrad's keen sense of the little things that make or break a day, that renders it truly moving.
... there's something so slick, so neat and tidy about the production ... that it clashes with the desperate anguish of the down-and-out main character.
As one bad thing is piled on another, it starts to feel like a test of Job proportions. This movie could drift over into melodrama were it not for the performance from Will Smith.
It's more interested in the concrete details of Chris Gardner's life: finding a place to sleep, trying to stay upbeat, trying to keep his co-workers from finding out how close he is to living in a box. Which is why it's so powerful at the end.
An admirably unsentimental biopic with an excellent central performance, but it doesn’t impact as strongly as it could.
Hokey title, but sometimes movie is good.
Thankfully, humor leavens the dark journey, and little Jaden and his jokes go a long way to warm our hearts.
Smith hasn't delivered this kind of earnest, emotionally raw performance since Ali, and his Chris Gardner is every bit as complex.
The movie is an economic cliff-hanger.
Top CriticMay have a slight TV movie vibe to it, but Gardner’s story is so stirring and so incredible that it really doesn’t matter.
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.
...an overlong yet sporadically compelling drama...
January 16, 2009:
UK Critics Consensus: The Wrestler Pile-drives The Critics, But Don’t Waste any £s on Seven Pounds
With critical success for Slumdog Millionaire last week (94%), we have more award-friendly fare in the UK cinemas this Friday in Darren Aronofsky's spandex-tastic The Wrestler.... More...
March 04, 2008:
Rush Hour 3 Takes '07 DVD Rental Crown
It may not have been quite the box-office phenomenon that its predecessors were -- and critics may have disliked it enough to keep it down at 20 percent on the Tomatometer --... More...
January 16, 2008:
The Day the Earth Stood Still Adds Jaden Smith
His participation in a new Karate Kid is still only the stuff of rumors, but Jaden Smith has officially joined the cast of another remake. More...
January 10, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Captain Jack and Captain Morgan Set Sail
For the first time in three weeks, studios will pack a Friday with plenty of new releases as four films open or expand nationwide giving the box office chart a major shakeup.... More...
Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.
What were your favorites? Least favorites? The funniest and scariest? Moviefone wants to know!
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TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.
Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
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