Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Pursuit of Happyness


I was a single parent for sixteen years, raising four children from the time that they were ages 2, 3, 4, and 6 on an income that was below the poverty level for most of those years. I traded for a lot of things, made a lot of things, and just plain made do. I was a college drop-out at the time, and earned a Ph.D. along the way while specializing in three-dollar family meals that produced enough leftovers for another night. People would say to me, your life would make a good movie. No, I told them. It wouldn't. My life wasn't severe enough for a movie. I never had to sleep in a rest room with my kids, or stand in line at a homeless shelter.

But Chris Gardner did, and that's why his story became a book, and now, a movie. It's the kind of rags-to-riches tale that has been popular in America since the Horatio Alger books from the late 1800s. More than his success, it's Gardner's way of dealing with the problems that's inspirational. There's no yelling, no punching of walls (not that I did any of that myself, mind you)--just a graceful acceptance of the things that happen to him and a determination to change his lot in life.

After seeing two films by Italian director Gabriele Muccino and admiring the emotional content, Will Smith became convinced that Muccino was the person who could bring Gardner's story to life on the big screen. Largely because of Smith's lobbying, Muccino was given the chance to direct his first American film. I'm not so sure that I buy Muccino's comment that it takes an outsider to truly understand and capture the notion of the American dream, because there are plenty of Chris Gardners out there who are so down-and-out that the American dream seems as far away from them as Italy. Even lower middle-class Americans who dream of hitting the lottery will see themselves in a character like Gardner, a person for whom hard work just wasn't paying off.

Smith received an Oscar nomination for his role as this unlucky fellow who sunk whatever money he had into portable bone density scanners. Gardner bought a pick-up truckload and thought he could make a semi-trailer fortune by selling them to doctors and hospitals. But the thing is, the picture quality wasn't as good as on the stationary models, and the medical profession regarded them as superfluous as fur-lined toilet seats. And so we watch Gardner hustling here and there, peddling his wares like a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, while his wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), becomes more and more frustrated with him and their situation. So she leaves him, and reluctantly leaves the boy behind, because Gardner demonstrated that he wasn't about to let her take him to New York.

And so Chris and Christopher (Jaden Smith--yes, Will's real-life son) try to get ahead in San Francisco, prompted by the sight of a lot of happy people coming out of a building and one rich dude parking his convertible right there. Why are all these people so happy, Gardner wants to know. Well, it turns out that they're stock brokers. They golf, they sip martinis, they don't have to scrounge for meals. What a country!

Gardner is a bright fellow---so bright that he's able to solve the Rubik's cube in a matter of minutes--and so he finds ways to assert himself so that the honchos at Dean Witter Reynolds can't ignore him, even when he shows up in tattered clothes (he's got a doozy of an excuse). Even after he's accepted into a non-paying internship program that admits 20 people who compete for a single job (is Donald Trump hiding in the wings?), he's treated shabbily because his supervisor/teacher keeps asking him to get coffee, move parked cars, etc. Did I mention he's the only black member in this internship class? A Malcolm X disciple would have popped his lid, but this guy is clearly a Martin Luther King, Jr. kind of guy. He takes it, and he works within the system to beat the system and beat every last advantage-sucking competitor. And that's no spoiler. The DVD case proclaims the news that Gardner rose "to become a Wall Street legend," so you know the film has a happy ending.

hat's the problem with true stories, really. They take a bite out of the dramatic tension, because most of the time you know the outcome--which, of course, puts the burden of sustained interest on the performances and cinematography. Both are strong in "The Pursuit of Happyness," with the young Smith turning in a pretty good performance alongside his dad. He manages to convey warmth and pathos without succumbing to cutesy-kid syndrome. The rich white guys are a tad bland and clichéd, but then I'm guessing that's the way rich white guys are. Of the bunch, Brian Howe stands out as Jay Twistle, the human resources guy in charge of screening interns for Dean Witter. As for the cinematography, Muccino opted to film at the real locations where Gardner spent his dual life as a homeless dad and high-powered stock broker intern, including the Glide Mission (whose choir appears as well).

Mostly, "The Pursuit of Happyness" is a father-son film, and except for one moment when little Christopher utters the "F-word" as he reads graffiti and asks dad what it means, it's a pretty family-friendly film (PG-13). I just don't know how much the film will hold the interest of younger children when the cameras pull away from father and son and focus only on Gardner at work or schmoozing.

I was a single parent for sixteen years, raising four children from the time that they were ages 2, 3, 4, and 6 on an income that was below the poverty level for most of those years. I traded for a lot of things, made a lot of things, and just plain made do. I was a college drop-out at the time, and earned a Ph.D. along the way while specializing in three-dollar family meals that produced enough leftovers for another night. People would say to me, your life would make a good movie. No, I told them. It wouldn't. My life wasn't severe enough for a movie. I never had to sleep in a rest room with my kids, or stand in line at a homeless shelter.

But Chris Gardner did, and that's why his story became a book, and now, a movie. It's the kind of rags-to-riches tale that has been popular in America since the Horatio Alger books from the late 1800s. More than his success, it's Gardner's way of dealing with the problems that's inspirational. There's no yelling, no punching of walls (not that I did any of that myself, mind you)--just a graceful acceptance of the things that happen to him and a determination to change his lot in life.

After seeing two films by Italian director Gabriele Muccino and admiring the emotional content, Will Smith became convinced that Muccino was the person who could bring Gardner's story to life on the big screen. Largely because of Smith's lobbying, Muccino was given the chance to direct his first American film. I'm not so sure that I buy Muccino's comment that it takes an outsider to truly understand and capture the notion of the American dream, because there are plenty of Chris Gardners out there who are so down-and-out that the American dream seems as far away from them as Italy. Even lower middle-class Americans who dream of hitting the lottery will see themselves in a character like Gardner, a person for whom hard work just wasn't paying off.

Smith received an Oscar nomination for his role as this unlucky fellow who sunk whatever money he had into portable bone density scanners. Gardner bought a pick-up truckload and thought he could make a semi-trailer fortune by selling them to doctors and hospitals. But the thing is, the picture quality wasn't as good as on the stationary models, and the medical profession regarded them as superfluous as fur-lined toilet seats. And so we watch Gardner hustling here and there, peddling his wares like a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, while his wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), becomes more and more frustrated with him and their situation. So she leaves him, and reluctantly leaves the boy behind, because Gardner demonstrated that he wasn't about to let her take him to New York.

And so Chris and Christopher (Jaden Smith--yes, Will's real-life son) try to get ahead in San Francisco, prompted by the sight of a lot of happy people coming out of a building and one rich dude parking his convertible right there. Why are all these people so happy, Gardner wants to know. Well, it turns out that they're stock brokers. They golf, they sip martinis, they don't have to scrounge for meals. What a country!

Gardner is a bright fellow---so bright that he's able to solve the Rubik's cube in a matter of minutes--and so he finds ways to assert himself so that the honchos at Dean Witter Reynolds can't ignore him, even when he shows up in tattered clothes (he's got a doozy of an excuse). Even after he's accepted into a non-paying internship program that admits 20 people who compete for a single job (is Donald Trump hiding in the wings?), he's treated shabbily because his supervisor/teacher keeps asking him to get coffee, move parked cars, etc. Did I mention he's the only black member in this internship class? A Malcolm X disciple would have popped his lid, but this guy is clearly a Martin Luther King, Jr. kind of guy. He takes it, and he works within the system to beat the system and beat every last advantage-sucking competitor. And that's no spoiler. The DVD case proclaims the news that Gardner rose "to become a Wall Street legend," so you know the film has a happy ending.

hat's the problem with true stories, really. They take a bite out of the dramatic tension, because most of the time you know the outcome--which, of course, puts the burden of sustained interest on the performances and cinematography. Both are strong in "The Pursuit of Happyness," with the young Smith turning in a pretty good performance alongside his dad. He manages to convey warmth and pathos without succumbing to cutesy-kid syndrome. The rich white guys are a tad bland and clichéd, but then I'm guessing that's the way rich white guys are. Of the bunch, Brian Howe stands out as Jay Twistle, the human resources guy in charge of screening interns for Dean Witter. As for the cinematography, Muccino opted to film at the real locations where Gardner spent his dual life as a homeless dad and high-powered stock broker intern, including the Glide Mission (whose choir appears as well).

Mostly, "The Pursuit of Happyness" is a father-son film, and except for one moment when little Christopher utters the "F-word" as he reads graffiti and asks dad what it means, it's a pretty family-friendly film (PG-13). I just don't know how much the film will hold the interest of younger children when the cameras pull away from father and son and focus only on Gardner at work or schmoozing.

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