The Pursuit of Happyness Reviews

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

Smith's performance is terrific, but it's in service of a clumsy, heavy-handed film that believes the ultimate measure of a man is how hard he chases what he desires - wealth, fame, Oscars.

Full Review | Original Score: 83/100

Like Gardner's desire to escape the confines of his economic station, there's a better movie struggling to escape the confines of a Hollywood movie machine that values story mechanics over genuine emotion.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

How is it that movies 'inspired by a real story' often feel more fake than those fully embedded in the realm of fiction?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The Pursuit of Happyness goes beyond tugging at our heartstrings. It plucks them, strokes them, strums them, plays them for all they're worth. That's both the strength and the weakness of this inspirational drama.

Full Review

The real story of Chris Gardner's life is indeed inspirational. The movie version wants to be inspirational as well, but never quite gets there.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Counterfeit emotion and submerged racism

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... 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.

The Pursuit of Happyness expectedly suffers from Muccino's overstated handling of the material.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/5

The American Dream as white, rich and all male.

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Full Review | Original Score: C

If patience isn't a virtue you possess, pass on The Pursuit of Happyness.

Full Review | Original Score: C

This Sisyphean movie succeeds in portraying '80s era San Francisco as a deceptively appealing city with a flaky underbelly inhabited by desperate hippies and homeless people.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

At its core The Pursuit of Happyness is a good story -- one that's literally rags to riches, and didn't need the many tweaks and embellishments that Italian director Gabriele Muccino and writer Steven Conrad have added.

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Smith is resourceful in the role, though the story stretches one's credulity about his character's resourcefulness.

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[Muccino] is quite skilled at hitting all the appropriate emotional peaks and valleys, though his hard logic leaves a bit to be desired.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Sap, sentiment, and hokey plot devices bog down an otherwise down to earth story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

This is Will Smith's movie from start to finish and he carries it wonderfully.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4