The Pursuit of Happyness

My family finally gave in to my pleadings on Sunday night to watch "The Pursuit of Happyness," starring Will "Fresh Prince" Smith and his really cute son who has like 4 names. I have wanted to see this movie since it was in the theaters but didn't, probably because I never see movies in theaters anymore (that will be explained at another time).

I don't know why I wanted to see this movie, other than I just like Will Smith. He's been there throughout my life, even though I wasn't the biggest "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" fan. Yeah, I watched it sometimes, but not on a regular basis. Regardless, Will and I have, in a sense, grown up together. Now we're older. He's married, I'm married, we're like old married buddies who remember each other when... when we were up to no good in our neighborhood. You understand.

So I wanted to see this movie and once it passed through the theaters and I missed my chance there, I knew that the best time to see it would be a weekend upstate with the fam.

When watching movies with the fam, it's best to choose lighthearted and easy-to-follow films that don't require silence and intense amounts of thinking. This is because, as anyone who has tried to watch a movie with the fam knows, Harvey falls asleep and awakes throughout the film, insisting that he be updated when he wakens (just to fall right back asleep as soon as the recap has taken time from the rest of us viewers), and Pam just talks...and talks...and talks... (yes, she did study film in school, but we don't always want to discuss symbolism of flowers, especially because its likely we'd figure that out on our own without having to discuss it ad nauseam).

Anyway, I knew that this movie would be good because it wouldn't require us to analyze any scenes, no one had an accent (that confuses Harvey) and because it was clearly a tear-jerker. Those work the best in the realm of the fam, because Harvey cries easily (well, mom and I do, too. Mark however has not cried in two years...) and for some reason the rest of us bond together when watching Harvey cry. It's usually a good time had by all.

On to the movie...

The movie was rough! For anyone who's seen this - my god, how depressing! This poor guy - Chris Gardner - meets bad luck around every corner, from investing poorly into bone density scanners that are ahead of their time and not cost-efficient for the medical offices of the early 1980s, to getting hit by a car on his 10 minute break from his stockbroker internship and, of course, losing his shoe and having to return from said break without it. There's so many other bad things that happen, I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone. Needless to say, the movie was exactly the tear-jerker we'd hoped for and by the end of it we were all rooting for this man, Chris Gardner, and crying, and so into it that we HAD to google him so we could see a picture of this poor, yet happy, man.

God bless you, Chris Gardner, for your perseverance and your story's Freedman/Tate/Spacek family entertainment value.