We may wonder if happiness can be bought this way, and whether the film being sold to us isn't a slightly suspect package, but Smith, sublime and moving, sells it regardless.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Dan Castellaneta, Thandie Newton, Brian Howe
Screenwriter: Steve Conrad
Producer: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, James Lassiter
DVD Info
Release:
Mar 3, 2009
DVD Features:
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dubbed - French - Optional
- Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional
- Subtitles - English - Closed Captioned
Reviews
Bonding convincingly (as you might expect) with his own son on screen, Smith delivers his most compelling performance since Ali.
Deserves 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.
Plays like an unravelling of the Eighties comedy hit Trading Places. Instead of a smart-Alec street hustler who turns the tables on his seemingly benign patrons, we have a smart saint who simply wants to join the club.
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.
One can detect almost the spirit of a public information film nagging the audience: look, people, the American Dream doesn't come for free.
The on-screen chemistry between father and son is a winning formula – lifting the film from just another tear-jerker into a heartfelt and compelling slice of cinema.
May have a slight TV movie vibe to it, but Gardner’s story is so stirring and so incredible that it really doesn’t matter.
Smith hits all the right notes – understated, engaging, inspirational – even if his young son threatens to charm him off the screen.
With a terrific central performance by Will Smith, this is a well made, sharply written and ultimately uplifting drama, but it really piles on the misery before you get there.
An admirably unsentimental biopic with an excellent central performance, but it doesn’t impact as strongly as it could.
A true story told in a deeply heartwarming style: there's never any doubt where this film is going.
Even the most superficially glossy of surfaces can't completely extinguish the genuine emotions running beneath them here.
In an effort to make a crowd-pleasing film, the horrors that Gardner must have experienced on the streets feel glossed over by the Hollywood machine.
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The Pursuit of Happyness at IGN
The Pursuit of Happyness at AskMen


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