The Pursuit of Happyness

Dave encapsulated my feelings going into this movie perfectly when he said 'I wanted to refer to it as Sappyness or Happymess, but it's actually genuinely engaging with well judged performances. A lovely surprise'.

SO TRUE. My expectations were low going into this movie. Basically I was expecting it to be a shameless Oscar bid by Will Smith. Yes, it was an Oscar bid, but shameless it was not. Now if you don't know the premise behind this film, it's about a a family - the mother leaves, leaving the son and the broke father to try to make a life for themselves. Determined not to be broke anymore, the father takes an unpaid internship at a stockbroking firm, and he and his son have to live off next to nothing, sometimes sleeping in homeless shelters, bathrooms etc.

And it's based on a true story. A recipe for sugary sweetness, right? Not so.

A story like this was always going to be a little bit heartwarming, it's just the way it is. But the performances were subtle, and even the father/son dynamic (played by Will Smith and his real life son) wasn't overplayed. The tension and feeling of hopelessness was there, but never manipulative. There were some very 'real' little moments that saved it from that I think - the son having enough eventually and having a bit of a tanty, the father trying to have a word to the daycare provider about a few things he wasn't happy with etc. And most importantly, Will Smith's character was flawed enough to make him believable.

It did take me a bit to warm to this film because there were some jarring moments in the beginning, like when the mother first takes the son, Will Smith sat on the bed holding one of the son's shoes. We get it already, he's sad about losing his son. And there was a bit of an irritating rubix cube theme as well, but that thankfully only lasted a little while. Rosie has said that she was expecting sappiness, but swung to the other extreme to the point where she felt she didn't connect emotionally with the characters, but felt she should have. Like watching someone tell the story, instead of feeling the story. I can see the truth in this, and suffered from this a little myself, but I suppose when you're expecting to be smacked in the face with emotion and you're not, it does take that little bit extra to invest in the characters you're watching.

So, if you don't like a side serving of sugar with your film, and are hesitant to see The Pursuit of Happyness because of it, don't be. Sit tight through the beginning and I think it'll pay off as a great piece of entertainment, even for those with the lowest of sappiness thresholds.

8 for me.