Member review

"The pursuit of happiness" is 117 minutes of inspiration that will drag tears from your eyes the moment it opens them. The one and only Will Smith and his endearing son, Jaden Smith, have joined forces and together they have delivered a demoralising performance that shapes this movie into, without a doubt, an instant rags to riches triumph. It tells a tale of a benevolent man going beyond that extra mile to provide his child with that quality of life that he so much deserves, but never had.

Realistically, there are millions of homeless people that will always be in rags and never touch those riches. Chis Gardener made it, the guy sleeping on the pavement that you walked by clearly didn't! In this true story, Gardener (Will Smith) is a salesman with a sufficient supply of bonne density scanners he obtained through a dicey investment plan that fails to meet his expectations. Chris lived with his girlfriend, Linda (Thandie Newton), who was sick and tired of having to work through double shifts while he wonders the streets holding these peculiar machines, only to arrive home by sundown with very little to show for his labour. They have a son (Jaden Smith) who consistently wears a smile on his face, oblivious to the fact that his parents' relationship is about to crack. Long story short, they break up and it seems there is nothing they can do about it.

Linda has a self realisation that her boyfriend is a common failure, and who is to say whether she followed her unmerited heart or her ignorant mind when she left her only child with a man that in her eyes had hit rock bottom in his life.

But the million dollar question is how on earth does an 8 year old cope with this childhood showing no emotional damage whatsoever until at one point he drops his action figure? An 8 year old that seems intelligent but doesn't have the common sense to realise that he sleeping in a public underground toilet and not a cave in the age of the dinosaurs is very hard to believe. I doubt that a man such as Chris Gardener would have an 8 year old with a mentality of a 2 year old. Many emotional aspects of this movie have been exaggerated for the audience's entertainment, and truth be told, the lack of realism in the movie has probably been avoided because its true nature is far too depressing for those who do not have an insight on what it means to have absolutely nothing for the one person that is indeed the centre of your universe and as for Chris Gardener, this person was is one and only son.

In conclusion, my final opinion is that the movie is a great accomplishment, because it seems as if the one thing that helps them through this tearful endeavour is the pure untainted love a father has for his son and the sheer trust and faith all children should be able to bestow upon their fathers. "The pursuit of happiness" is the sugar-coated translation of the true definition of rags to riches.