The Pursuit of Happyness

My movie review for The pursuit of Happyness (intentional mis-spelling)

Movie Genre: Family Drama

Grade: B+/A-, by Matthew Felsted

            The Pursuit of Happyness is a drama based on the life of a real family. The movie’s main character is a father that is left by his wife and forced to raise his only child alone. The father’s name is Chris Gardner and is played by Will Smith. Chris is a tall and healthy black man in his 30’s. His emotional health matches his physique. Chris is emotionally resilient as he takes his failures and refuses to ever become depressed. Optimistic and sharp he always endures.

Chris Garder makes risky choices from the very beginning. He chooses to invest his entire lifesavings in medical equipment that he plans to grow rich off of by selling them to doctors. Unfortunately, very few doctors see any real need for the devices. Although he only fails again and again his emotional choice is to never give up. He chooses to emotionally trust complete strangers. A consequence of his trust causes him to have one of his expensive medical scanners stolen.

Chris’s objective changes as the movie progresses. Initially Chris wants to be a successful salesman and a prominent businessman for the San Francisco area. His objective changes from wanting success to desperately trying to keep his family together. This too however becomes a futile effort after his wife leaves him and takes his son. He finally sets his sight and his full determination on obtaining a prized internship position.

Although Will Smith tends to play the roles that make him seem physically tough and comedic, in the Pursuit of Happyness, he plays the optimistic and ever enduring character with emotional tenderness. Will Smith strayed from his normal acting style to form a perfect fit for the character.