The Pursuit of Happyness

Walking into the movie theatre to watch "The Pursuit of Happyness", I knew what to expect, and I walked out of it at the end of the show getting exactly what I expected. As the trailer suggested, it is a story of a man struggling financially to support his wife, his son, and himself. He makes some risky decisions that lead to a lot of difficult situations snowballing one after the other (including his wife leaving him), but he manages to pull through in the end. I guess you can call it a dramatized success story.

When we were asked in class to blog about this topic, I thought "what can you possibly say about it?" Decent film, strong performances, touching story. What else is there? Someone suggested that the message the film is giving can be deceiving, as it unrealistically portrays the fact that people can ultimately get anything they want, and that it uses the word "happiness" as a synonym to "money". I disagree. Films like these aren't meant to make us believe in the impossible; they are meant to boost people's morale and give them the idea that they can achieve anything WITHIN their reach and their abilities. No one said anything about waking up tomorrow and being able to work in NASA. The accomplishment Will Smith's character achieved in the movie is a very possible one, bearing in mind that is was inspired by a true story that actually occurred. As for the fact that the idea of happiness was symbolized by money, this isn't entirely incorrect. The reason the main character was struggling during the film was because of the lack of money, which lead to a difficult life. He couldn't even afford shelter for his son anymore. It is an animal instinct in human beings to be able to provide for their offspring and make them comfortable, so imagine being so incompetent that you cannot achieve that. By getting a decent job, with a great salary, most of the problems he was dealing with in life instantly get abolished. He can now provide for his son, give him shelter, food, and comfort, get him a good education and so on. Although this does not constitute the entire meaning of happiness as an ideology, it still makes important aspects of life much easier. Without having to struggle on how to make ends meet, there is more time to enjoy a good life with his son and do normal everyday things.

If I were to criticize the film, the one thing I would say is that they gave too much of it away in the trailer. Most of the sensitive, critical parts were shown in the trailer, making the impact in the film much less (like in the scene where his son was sleeping in the bathroom of the subway station, and he was holding on to him with tears rolling down his eyes). That was a strong on-screen scene, and it would've been a lot more powerful if the audience had not seen it before numerous times in the trailer. Overall, a good film, and a very powerful performance from Will Smith, who was unfortunately snubbed at the Oscars (although Forest Whitaker's Oscar was well-deserved). His son was a good actor as well, and that probably was an important factor in why the performance was really strong.