The Pursuit of Happyness

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (12)

D: Gabriele Muccino

Columbia/Relativity Media/Overbrook/Escape Artists (Will Smith, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, James Lassiter & Steve Tisch)

US 2006

117 mins

Drama/Biopic

W: Steven Conrad [based on the book by Chris Gardner & Quincy Troupe]

DP: Phedon Papamichael

Ed: Hughes Winborne

Mus: Andrea Guerra

Will Smith (Chris Gardner), Jaden Smith (Christopher Gardner), Thandie Newton (Linda Gardner), Brian Howe (Jay Twistle), Dan Castellaneta (Alan Frakesh), James Karen (Martin Frohm)

Will Smith delivers the best performance of his career in this biographical drama of an ordinary man struggling for the American dream.

Based on real-life events, Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, a medical supplies salesman who falls on desperate times and is forced to live on the streets of San Francisco with his young son.  Juggling the hardship, he triumphs against adversity when he lands an internship at a major company, fighting for his place to become a permanent employee and make a better life for himself and his boy.

As mentioned, Will Smith is excellent, and the film also works by casting Smith's real-life son as his on-screen son, making for an authentic double act with some truly tender moments (Unfortunately, the same strategy didn't work in After Earth).

7/10