The Pursuit of Happyness

It's really quite simple. This story is not good looking enough to be a significant cinematic experience. The story is not quite uncommon enough to be a remarkably original movie. The performance by Smith, while certainly fine, is not excellent enough to write home about. (The only reason he is "so great" in this role is because we've seen him so long being a funny man.) I have to admit that despite his gray hair and seriousness, I still saw the Smith of Men in Black and Bad Boys behind the would be stock broker's glasses. The movie kicks you in the stomach with the story of a man struggling to make a better life for himself and his son. After a while though we get numb, and it totally doesn't help that we all know what's coming in the end. It's not that I didn't feel the predicted connection with the story, it's just that, the whole time watching, I was asking myself, "Why in the world did this ever become a movie?" A movie is art, and some subjects lend themselves better to art than others. This one is one of the "others." It's alternately boring and depressing to watch, though when, at the very end we see that Smith's Chris Gardner got his dream job and after doing so made a boatload of money, we no longer feel sorry for him. They've built a little emotion into us, and then done away with it. After two hours I feel the same way I felt when I started... that I would MUCH rather have just skipped it all together and given, oh, say Children of Men another viewing.

C