Smith has never been less showy, or more effective, than he is here.
Comment
12/15/06
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
It's a fine film, with a portrait of fatherhood that feels scuffed and driven and real.
12/15/06
What The Pursuit of Happyness does better than most by-your-bootstraps films is to make us root for the protagonist as if he were our own flesh and blood.
12/15/06
Will Smith's acting earnestness, coupled with the mental hell of maintaining a time-and-money chain that's essential to survival, provides unique inspiration for this inspired-by-a-true-story tale. It's certainly not the garish Hollywood gloss.
12/15/06
It's because Happyness gets these quiet, panicked moments of life on the margins so true that, when the expected climactic triumph comes, it's so affecting.
12/15/06
Smith's performance is definitely on par with Julia Roberts' in Erin Brockovich.
12/15/06
Chris Gardner is running against the odds. And his efforts embody certain modern American virtues like dogged determination and idealism and hope.
12/15/06
Seeing former cinema clowns like Robin Williams and Tom Hanks clutching sweet, sweet Oscar gold must have lit a fire under [Smith's] thespian aspirations...
12/15/06
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.
12/15/06
As a rule, it's usually a good sign when Smith doesn't have a Top-40 hip-hop track featured prominently in the movie that more or less repeats the film's title over and over again.
12/15/06
Italian director Gabriele Muccino ("L'Ultimo bacio") resists the urge to wring sap out of this story and is adept translating this American Dream tale to the screen.
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
the movie aims to be inspirational, startling and poignant. It doesn't always succeed, although it's always watchable because of the sincerity in the Smiths' performances.
12/15/06
Scientists will someday discover this screenplay is so benign it could probably be used to battle tumors, just not the Oprah crowd that it's going to be ragingly sold to
12/14/06
every person in the audience can see some portion of the film and remember being faced with similar obstacles in their lives.
12/14/06
One of those one-man-show movies, practically a vanity project, but Smith continues to employ his charisma and natural ability to earn empathy well.
12/14/06
...an overlong yet sporadically compelling drama...
12/14/06
[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
There's nothing new here, just a whole lot of the old dependable. The difference is that the old dependable is above average.
12/14/06
Had we seen an intimate glimpse into the professional side of Gardner's journey, this likeable but unexceptional fable could have been so much more.
12/14/06
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