the pursuit of happiness review essay

Share full article

Supported by

Movie Review | 'The Pursuit of Happyness'

Climbing Out of the Gutter With a 5-Year-Old in Tow

By Manohla Dargis

Dec. 15, 2006

A fairy tale in realist drag, “The Pursuit of Happyness” is the kind of entertainment that goes down smoothly until it gets stuck in your craw. Inspired by a true story, as they like to say in Hollywood, the film traces the fleeting ups and frightening downs of Chris Gardner, whose efforts to keep his family from sinking into poverty evolve into a life-and-death struggle of social Darwinian proportions. It’s the early 1980s, and while Ronald Reagan is delivering the bad economic news on television, Chris is about to prove you don’t need an army to fight the war on poverty, just big smiles and smarts, and really sturdy shoes. (It also helps that the star playing him is as innately sympathetic as Will Smith.)

Given how often Chris breaks into a run on the streets of San Francisco, it’s a good thing his shoes are well built; his lungs, too. Written by Steven Conrad and directed by Gabriele Muccino, “The Pursuit of Happyness” recounts how Chris, plagued by some bad luck, a few stupid moves and a shrew for a wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), loses his apartment and, with his 5-year-old, Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Mr. Smith’s own beautiful son), joins the ranks of the homeless, if not the hopeless. Evicted from the mainstream and bounced from shelter to shelter, Chris holds firm to his dignity, resolve, faith, love and independence. His optimism sweeps through the film like a searchlight, scattering clouds and dark thoughts to the wind.

It’s the same old bootstraps story, an American dream artfully told, skillfully sold. To that calculated end, the filmmaking is seamless, unadorned, transparent, the better to serve Mr. Smith’s warm expressiveness. That warmth feels truthful, as does the walk-up apartment Chris’s family lives in at the start of the film, which looks like the real paycheck-to-paycheck deal. As does the day care center, which is so crummy it can’t even get happiness right (hence the title).

This is no small thing, considering the film industry’s usual skewed sense of economic class, a perspective encapsulated by the insider who described the middle-class family in “Little Miss Sunshine” to me as working class, perhaps because the mother drives a gently distressed Miata rather than next year’s Mercedes.

Money matters in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” as it does in life. But it matters more openly in this film than it does in most Hollywood stories that set their sights on the poor, largely because Chris’s pursuit of happiness eventually becomes interchangeable with his pursuit of money. He doesn’t want just a better, more secure life for himself and his child; either by scripted design or by the example of the real Chris Gardner, he seems to yearn for a life of luxury, stadium box seats and the kind of sports car he stops to admire in one scene. His desires aren’t just upwardly mobile; they’re materialistically unbound. Instead of a nice starter home, he (and the filmmakers) ogles mansions. It’s no wonder he hopes to become a stockbroker.

That may sound like a punch line, at least to some ears, but it’s the holy grail in “The Pursuit of Happyness.” A self-starter, Chris has sunk all of the family’s money into costly medical scanners that he tries to sell to doctors and hospitals. But the machines are overpriced, and the sure thing he banked on has landed them in debt. Forced to work two shifts at a dead-end job, Linda angrily smolders and then rages at Chris, which seems reasonable since he has gambled all of their savings on an exceptionally foolish enterprise. (And, unlike her, he hasn’t signed up for overtime.) But this is a film about father love, not mother love, and Linda soon leaves the picture in a cloud of cigarette smoke and a storm of tears.

Chris and the filmmakers seem happy to see her go, but life only gets tougher once she and her paychecks disappear. Much of the film involves Chris’s subsequent efforts to keep himself and his child housed and fed while he is enrolled in an unpaid internship program at a powerful stock brokerage firm. Bright and ferociously determined, Chris easily slides into this fantastical world of shouting men, ringing phones, gleaming surfaces and benevolent bosses. He goes along to get along, and when one of his bosses asks for money to pay for a cab, he quickly opens his wallet. Chris himself stiffs another working man for some money because that wallet is so light. But this is a film about him, not the other guy.

How you respond to this man’s moving story may depend on whether you find Mr. Smith’s and his son’s performances so overwhelmingly winning that you buy the idea that poverty is a function of bad luck and bad choices, and success the result of heroic toil and dreams. Both performances are certainly likable in the extreme, though Mr. Smith shined brighter and was given much more to do when he played the title character in Michael Mann’s underrated “Ali.” That film proves an interesting comparison with this one, not in filmmaking terms, but in its vision of what it means to be a black man struggling in America. In one, a black man fights his way to the top with his fists; in the other, he gets there with a smile.

“The Pursuit of Happyness” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes mild adult language and some parental fighting.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Opens today nationwide.

Directed by Gabriele Muccino; written by Steven Conrad; director of photography, Phedon Papamichael; edited by Hughes Winborne; music by Andrea Guerra; production designer, J. Michael Riva; produced by Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch James Lassiter and Will Smith; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 117 minutes.

WITH: Will Smith (Chris Gardner), Thandie Newton (Linda) and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (Christopher).

The Pursuit of Happyness Movie Review: Overcoming Adversity and Striving

How it works

The Pursuit of Happyness outlined several social issues that the starring actors faced; Will Smith playing Chris Gardner, and Jaden Smith playing Garden’s son Christopher. Pursuit of Happyness was based on the real-life experiences of Christopher Gardner, who was once a homeless single father who struggled hard to become a successful stockbroker. The movie shows the audience the close relationship between the father and the son; they underline the fact that parents need to provide the proper care and attention to children so that they can maintain psychological development.

The film allows the audience to make a connection to their personal lives, and it also helps most people make sense of the world in which they live. The film resembles a number of social messages in the film for society.

The Pursuit of Happyness shows the different movements a person can take on the social ladder. Throughout the movie, we witness how Chris overcomes being homeless and without a job. By the end, we are shown how he became a millionaire owner of a stock firm. This is a great example of social mobility, with Chris being able to experience both downward and upward mobility. The film starts off with Chris’s story; we are shown that he is living in the lower class population. During his internship, he drops below the poverty line, and in one of the main scenes, we are shown where he and Christopher return back to the motel room to find their belongings removed, so they are left with no money or place to go. A validation of his downward social mobility is when Chris gets so desperate to the point that he sells his blood to raise money just so he can survive another day. Chris remains this way until the end of the film, where he finally lands and secures the dream position with the company. Here we are shown where he made an upward social mobility progress, as he secured the dream job earning a middle-class income and lifestyle, and he ended up becoming a millionaire stockbroker, motivational speaker, and author. After becoming a millionaire, a speaker, and an author, he settled down into the upper-class lifestyle.

Due to the symbols of social stratification, people in this film interact mostly with people who share the same social class, causing Chris to stand out more among the upper-class society. Suits, luxury cars, and expensive luncheons are regular and standard in the world Chris is trying to pursue, and this puts a strain on his insufficient financial lifestyle. When trying to keep up with the representation of what a successful businessman looks like, Chris alternate between two suits. He has pretended to own certain cars and bailed on a taxi after pretending he has enough money to pay for all the broker’s rides. When Chris offers to pay the taxi fee, he wants to be seen as the image of a successful businessman, even though he has inadequate funds. If he refused or showed that he didn’t have enough funds, then he would have been represented as a lower-class man, therefore losing his chances of getting the job he really wanted. In spite of all his sufferings and challenges, Chris still succeeds, and the high-status job that allows him pleasure and security in his and his son’s life is a symbol of what happiness is in Chris’s eyes.

By looking at class division as a basic part of the American culture, functional analysis is “a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society’s equilibrium.” (Henslin, 2012, p. 26). This theory maintains the idea that class stratification is essential and key for society to function properly. In the Pursuit of Happyness, Chris realizes his role as a lower class by doing the groundwork for successful businessmen. He was tricked into selling the scanners since his job provided hardly any room for growth, and the commissions he was receiving were very little compared to what the manufacturer of the product was making. Even working that job, he still plays an effective role in the corporate plan. Functional experts want to see class division in the employed world as an essential part, as society would not function properly if all classes were equal. The functionalist theory side of this film showed that the most qualified and skilled people usually fill the high and most important positions in a company. Chris is a good example of how he has to start at the bottom as an intern since his lack of education. Without proper education, he cannot compete against others who are pursuing to be a stock broker.

This movie goes in depth when discovering conflicting issues within classes in society. The conflict theory is “a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources.” (Henslin, 2012, p. 8). Since Chris was born into a different social class, his family passed on social disadvantages and privileges that many of his fellow interns didn’t have to face. Him coming from a different social class, he starts his journey as a broker from an underprivileged standpoint. From having financial strain, stress from being a single parent, lack of transportation and housing, and lack of professional attire were all reasons that made Chris disadvantaged in his social class. In society, we are shown that the upper class usually controls the lower class by keeping them from being any type of competition. When coming from an upper-class family, you have more time to pursue and achieve any goals or competitive jobs since they come from a family who has a generous out of money and is able to hire people to help out their family. Since Chris don’t have adequate fund and stability, he is forced to spend his time working dead-end jobs just to get by through the days. This does not give their class a reasonable chance to strive, so they continue the pattern of their lives, starting at the bottom. This is an example of how the conflict theory shows the control of the higher class over the lower class.

The following theories show how social stratification and division can be harmful to society. Chris’s place was at first in the proletariat society, which is made up of mass workers exploited by the bourgeoisie society, which consists of capitalists who own the means to produce wealth (Henslin, 2012, p. 28). His talent allowed him to move upward on the social ladder, which allowed him to start his family in a new social class. On the other hand, this is not a benefit that comes with living in poverty for the lower classes. Even though his success was founded in the end, Chris still had to falsely take on the characteristics of an upper-class man when he was working with his future employers in the company. The conflict between the two groups was so countless that Chris had no other choice but to hide his lower-class characteristics so he could be considered for a position. Regardless of the difficulties and obstacles that he had to face, Chris still was able to achieve his goal and making into the higher class.

What is happiness, and how do we successfully achieve this goal? Chris Gardner not only answered those questions, but he backed them up with the real-life consequences he had to face to reach his goal. I watched Chris’s strain and journey on the social ladder. I also gained an understanding of the social functions of class and status and just how much they affect a person’s success. Chris was able to rise above the average for his social group as he challenged certain stereotypes and class. We are shown that social standing is not set in stone. They are always the way to move up in down in social standings. The Pursuit of Happyness is a very inspiring film as it represents the struggles that many faces, especially those who live in poverty or in a third-world country. In the end, we are shown that we can accomplish anything as long we put our minds to it.

Cite this page

The Pursuit of Happyness Movie Review: Overcoming Adversity and Striving. (2023, Jun 21). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/the-pursuit-of-happyness-movie-review-overcoming-adversity-and-striving/

"The Pursuit of Happyness Movie Review: Overcoming Adversity and Striving." PapersOwl.com , 21 Jun 2023, https://papersowl.com/examples/the-pursuit-of-happyness-movie-review-overcoming-adversity-and-striving/

PapersOwl.com. (2023). The Pursuit of Happyness Movie Review: Overcoming Adversity and Striving . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-pursuit-of-happyness-movie-review-overcoming-adversity-and-striving/ [Accessed: 9 Sep. 2024]

"The Pursuit of Happyness Movie Review: Overcoming Adversity and Striving." PapersOwl.com, Jun 21, 2023. Accessed September 9, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/the-pursuit-of-happyness-movie-review-overcoming-adversity-and-striving/

"The Pursuit of Happyness Movie Review: Overcoming Adversity and Striving," PapersOwl.com , 21-Jun-2023. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-pursuit-of-happyness-movie-review-overcoming-adversity-and-striving/. [Accessed: 9-Sep-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / Movie Analysis / Analysis And Review Of The Movie The Pursuit Of Happyness

Analysis And Review Of The Movie The Pursuit Of Happyness

Category: Entertainment
Topic: In Pursuit of Happiness , Movie Analysis

Pages: 2 (1104 words)

Downloads: -->

--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.

Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?

are ready to help you with your essay

You won’t be charged yet!

Ready Player One Essays

Forrest Gump Essays

Hotel Rwanda Essays

American Sniper Essays

12 Angry Men Essays

Related Essays

We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Your essay sample has been sent.

In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->