Critique of the Film The Pursuit of Happiness - Movie Review Example

Visual Arts & Film Studies Critique Review of the film “The Pursuit of Happyness” For a story that Hollywood depicts in a reasonable way, this film is the kind that develops smoothly in the eyes of viewers until it ends and it dawns on viewers that it depicts what happens in life. The film could be bad or good, but this is all dependent on how a person views it. It goes to extra lengths to inspire its viewers even when it shows much of what happens when one does not have as opposed to how to get what everyone wants to have: that is money. The film shows that it is based on true events, which I do not doubt since the events in each scene are not so far from the events that happen in life. The film has two key characters, Chris Gardner and his son. Chris Gardner is a character that goes to extra lengths to alleviate his family from poverty. He struggles so hard to make ends meet despite being evicted from the apartment (Muccino, 2006). Unlike the common conception where people struggle financially because they are school dropouts or drug addicts, Gardner is shown as a talented and bright young man who is unfortunate. Together with his son, they endure so many hardships including sleeping in shelters, subway and hotel when he is lucky to get money during the day. From the look of how the characters dress, the film’s setting takes place at a time when America’s economy was under a recession. Research shows that the last few years of this century are not the worst hit by economic recession as compared to the early 1980s (Leonhardt, 2009). However, despite this, Gardner aims at showing the world that the poor do not need an army to fight poverty. All that a person needs are proper shoes as shown in several scenes and a positive attitude regardless of the problems at hand. As a viewer it is also critical to note that Will Smith, who is Chris Gardner in the film, does an exceptional job at convincing viewers of the struggles that people face just to survive. There are not so many films that portray how people struggle financially and in relationships so convincingly. I believe that the film drives the point home allowing viewers to make note of its logos of the logic content in its interesting display of characters’ behavior. Though Smith is only acting, this is a message that reminds all those who have the resources particularly the middle-income families that all this can go away. For example, in the first few scenes as the film begins, we see that Gardner had a different life, a job, savings and a family that was not broken. It is only after President Ronald Reagan delivers the bad news of the economic recession on television that all the unfortunate events in his life start occurring (Muccino, 2006). Certainly, the film has no shortage of disagreements as noted from those that Gardner has with his wife Linda. Although it is quite obvious for the viewer that the message is that money matters in relationships as it does in life, I could not help but wonder what would happen if there was no money in the world. I was not happy to see Linda leaving an already struggling man because of lack of financial stability. In addition, the son Christopher needed both his parents to be there despite the circumstances at hand (Muccino, 2006). Indeed, it is Hollywood’s way of reminding the world that some of the unfortunate in the society are not unfortunate because of wishing it, but rather partly because of being surrounded by the pessimists in the society. I believe this is the pathos, or the emotional appeal of the film to its audience. The film also shows that it is not only men who leave their children behind when the going gets tough, as commonly presented in most films. In this film, the child has to deal with the lack of his mother’s love and one who leaves to pursue her dream of becoming financially stable. I was happy to see her leave, perhaps like Gardner, but the film had a way of twisting such a happy moment to one that was more depressing than the previous moments. Unlike most of the film that I have watched, where the culprits leave and all goes well, Linda leaves with her paychecks and Gardner’s life became worse. Notwithstanding, her irrational behavior, it is not hard to see why she gets angry at him. Gardner had all his entire life savings on an imprudent enterprise, the portable bone-density scanners (Muccino, 2006). Logic dictates that these are the type of products in the market that are likely to cause a time lag between a person’s finances and how clients make purchases. However, even for a talented and bright man such as Gardner, it seems that there is no escaping a plague of bad luck and making of poor decisions. Half way through the film and it is not hard to see why anyone would not reprimand themselves for being couch potatoes or the poor choices a person makes regarding their finances. This inspirational film aims to show viewers that as much as people argue that money is the root of all evil, it is certainly the antidote of Garner’s unhappy life. Money matters a lot in this film, perhaps more than it does in most of the Hollywood films I have watched with storylines related to money matters. Undoubtedly, Gardner’s pursuit of happiness soon seems to become intertwined with the pursuit for financial stability. Gardner does not only crave for a good life for him and his son, with a secure job, warm meals and beds, good shoes and a nice home in a stable neighborhood. He admires what I thought were materialistically unbound things such as the sports car that he admires in one of the scenes halfway through the film. He also seems to admire a life of luxury. Moreover, it does not seem wise to day-dream of such luxuries when the basic necessities are hard to come by for him and his son. This is why it is not difficult to see and realize that such poor decision-making skills are part of the reason that led to his unfortunate circumstances in the beginning. As the film is about to end viewers note how Gardner’s life changes when he gets a new job as a stock broker. Ethos is an element portrayed in the film to convince viewers that poverty is as a result of bad luck, poor choices and that success comes as a result of hard work and going after American dream. I would say that the film has not effectively portrayed the reasons explaining the existence of the gap between the poor and rich people. According to Andress and Lohmann (2008), most of the people who work the hardest are the middle-income earning families and in other instances the poor. Nonetheless, Smith and his real life son Jared Smith and Thandi Newton who takes the character of Linda do an excellent job at portraying the other side of people struggle to make ends meet. References Andress, H., & Lohmann, H. (2008). The working poor in Europe: Employment, poverty and globalization. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Muccino, G. (Director) (2006). The pursuit of happyness [DVD]. Available from http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Pursuit-of-Happyness/70044605 Leonhardt, D. (2009, January 20). The economy is bad, but 1982 was worse. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/business/economy/21leonhardt.html?_r=0 Read More