What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that Will Smith will draw kids to this
movie. But it's not an action flick or slapstick comedy -- it's
an inspirational but often emotionally wrenching story. It
includes some very sad scenes between family members, as well
as a couple of emotionally scary ones. The mother becomes so
frustrated with her husband's inability to make a living that
she leaves him and their son. Later, the father yells at his
son for a trivial reason and gets in a fight, scaring the boy
and making him cry. If your child is in a clingy period with
you, this might upset him or her. There's a very brief allusion
to the mixed effects of classism and racism on the son. The
father's frustration sometimes leads to tears and sometimes to
angry language (mostly damn and "s--t"). A graffitied "f--k"
leads to a brief discussion of the word, and the son says it
out loud.
Families can discuss the appeal of stories like Chris'. Why do people like rags-to-riches tales? Why are they considered good material for movies? How close do you think the movie version is to the true story? Families can also talk about the risks that Chris takes to provide a "better life" for his son. How does the movie show that little Christopher is both scared of having no place to sleep, but also utterly trusting of his dad? Is it OK that Chris tells a white lie in front of his son to get a job? How does the film portray the decision by Christopher's mother to leave him? From whose point of view do you see this choice?
Common Sense Media Review
Jaden Christopher Syre Smith is adorable. And in THE PURSUIT
OF HAPPYNESS, he delivers an endearing performance: He
scrunches up his face, tells knock-knock jokes, and earnestly
declares love for his beleaguered fictional father (played by
real-life dad
Will
Smith). He even manages a convincing 30-second tantrum,
when Christopher, the 5-year-old character he's playing,
finally loses what seems to be his infinite patience and cries
because he has no bed to sleep in.
Unfortunately, young Jaden's very good work can't quite save the film's sentimental, simplistic structure. Set in 1981 San Francisco, Pursuit begins as Chris and his wife, Linda ( Thandie Newton), are having troubles. She works double shifts doing hotel laundry; he's trying to sell bone density scanners (i.e., specialty medical machines that, as Chris admits in voiceover, are too expensive for most doctors to buy). When Linda abandons the family, Chris remains determined. He spends six months working in an unpaid internship at Dean Witter, dead set on becoming a stock broker. He's smart enough and good with numbers, he figures, having proved that much by solving a Rubik's cube in front of a Dean Witter broker. As he studies and scrapes by, barely earning enough each week to pay for meals, Chris is sure he's going to make it.
You know he's going to make it, too, because Pursuit is based on the story of the real Chris Gardner, who not only ended up with his own brokerage firm (which he eventually sold for millions), but also wrote a book and told his story on Oprah. Perhaps the film's adherence to his point of view explains the scant attention paid to Linda's perspective: She looks only selfish and sad, while Chris looks noble, even during his occasional outbursts. When he makes little Christopher cry, Chris looks aptly abject, apologizes immediately, and soon assuages his son's fears, usually by asking, "Do you trust me?"
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