It is, of course, no bad film. Starring Will Smith (who manages to deliver good acting even in bad films), with a story of struggle nearly everyone can relate to, with competent direction, it delivers on its promise. And then does absolutely nothing more. There are several things that cripple it, and they’re all just what you’d expect. There’s a story of struggle, and you can trust Hollywood to throw up completely contrived speedbumps to make the story of struggle even hit even closer to home for its audience. And trust Hollywood to, upon discovery of an interesting story/script such as this, decide to put absolutely all the weight on tear-jerkery rather than developing its themes, rather than providing a rich and layered story, and rather than focusing on delivering a message that will actually stick with the viewer in the days after having seen it. It’s particularly annoying in the case of Pursuit of Happyness, as there’s really so much interesting here to explore. The father-son relationship, for instance. Smith’s character spends the entire film attempting to juggle work and taking care of his son, not always performing admirably and not always with his feet on steady ground. How does the film explore the issue? “You’re a good papa,” says Smith’s son (played by Smith’s son) arbitrarily. I guess we’ve lain that issue to rest then, seeing as the film doesn’t even try to explore it further. Is he a good father? Really? His intentions are surely good, but the film never even attempts to ask that question, at least not fairly. The film is litterally riddled with thematic overlooks like this which really annoy me considering its subject matter.
Whether or not the pursuit of a job as a stock broker should be considered synonym to the “pursuit of happyness” is not for me to say. It is, however, for this film to ask, but rather than doing that it again glosses it over and says that “sure, that’s what we’re going with” and throws a lot of tear-jerking stuff in. It’s “based on” a true story but something tells me that statement is only true using Hollywood’s definition of a true story.
Again, it’s a fine film, Will Smith’s performance in particular. It’s just not what it could, and should have been. Perfectly fine, even a recommendation considering the other things Hollywood might have to offer, if all you want is something to get your emotions in a twist. But it is good, and only good, if even that.
64/100
(Review also available at my blog. Yeah, I have a blog now. Hypocritical of me, but there you go.
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