All the things I could be, and I never became any of them…
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are the inalienable(unchallengeable, I looked it up) rights of man, as per the American Declaration of Independence.
Simple, right? Think again. There are people, for whom survival is a daily struggle. Chris Gardner is one such character who struggles to make ends meet. He invests his life’s savings in medical equipment, i.e. high density bone scanners, that are “slightly better than an x-ray, for twice as much.” His wife doesn’t respect him anymore, the IRS is knocking at his door, he is behind the rent, and he hasn’t sold a scanner in quite some time. Oh, and his car has been impounded coz he has not paid the parking tickets.
Inspired to try his hand at becoming a stock broker for Dean Witter, Chris tries enrolling for a competitive internship where 20 people enter unpaid and only one gets the job in the end. Considering one broker informs Chris that being good with numbers and people is the key to success, Chris believes he has a fair shot. However, his wife leaves him to go to New York, leaving the son behind at Chris’s request. Without a financial cushion, Chris and his son are soon evicted from their apartment and forced to sleep in shelters, bus stations, bathrooms, or wherever they can find refuge for the night. All this while he doggedly keeps working at Dean Witter, hoping against hope that he will make it through.
His son provides him not only with the impetus to keep striving, but also his only comfort, even as he comforts and soothes his son, who doesn’t understand why they live out of grocery bags and sleep in a different place every night. Chris sheds private tears but no one sees him suffer, especially at the internship, where his colleagues and mentors often hit him up for favors and money, in one case, his last five-dollar bill. The lower he falls, the more he seems endowed with courage, grit and a will to survive.
How Chris ultimately survives, and how he manages to remain the hero in his son’s eyes, the best father any kid could want, has to be seen to be believed.
When I think of Will Smith, the image that comes to my mind is sheer energy, raw power, an adrenaline rush. He is the actor I adored in Hitch, was in awe of in Ali, was entertained by in Men in Black, and chewed nails over when he laughed in fear while going to fight with the invaders in Independence Day. I could not ever, ever imagine him in the role of a man facing economic peril, struggling for survival. And now, having seen him, I cant imagine any one else playing this role. He tugs at your heart strings with his portrayal of a helpless husband, who watches his wife leave him. He makes you cross fingers for him, when he has to solve the Rubik’s cube for his one chance for the internship, and when he lands up for the interview in paint splattered clothes. He makes your heart go out to him and his son, when they play make believe that they are amidst dinosaurs, and need to look for a cave to hide, ultimately sleeping in a bathroom. And he makes you cry when he lands that precious job, which is a lifeline not just for him, but for his son as well. Hanging on to the ledge of hope by your fingernails, are the words that come to my mind when I think about him.
His son in real life, Jaden Smith, plays the role of precocious Christopher, who makes you wonder, laugh and cry at the innocence children have, how they believe their parents are invincible, and who, when their parents split, wonder if somehow, it was their fault. Thandie Newton is brilliant in the role of Linda, the prickly, impatient wife, who just gives up on Chris.
My favorite parts of the movie are:
The opening commentary by Will Smith, when he makes a passing reference to his father.
How Chris recovers his stolen scanners, hilarious as well as heart breaking
The sequence where young Christopher learns the difference between Probable and Possible
When Chris learns that he has landed the job, he doesn’t react much, but the wealth of emotions in his eyes, man, its gotta be seen to be believed. The senior partner asks him, “Was it easy?”, and he responds, “No Sir, it was not.”
The song that the congregation sing in the Glide
**Lord don’t move that mountain
Give me the strength to climb it
Please don’t move that stumbling block
But lead me Lord around it
(I remember promising myself I wont cry while watching this movie, but this was where a tear managed to escape)
A special mention for the director Gabriele Mucino, who did not fall in the trap of making it a tear jerker about an Afro-American man. The hint about segregation, discrimination, and pathos are there, but very very understated, and maybe that’s why you do end up thinking about them.
Ultimately, The pursuit of Happyness(oh, the name comes from the day care young Christopher goes to), is not just about happiness, its about courage in face of adversity, about hanging on to hope with everything you’ve got. As Reverend Williams at the Glide shelter says, “The important thing about that freedom train, is it’s got to climb mountains. We ALL have to climb mountains, you know; mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low. Yes, we know what those mountains are here at Glide. We sing about them.”