The Pursuit of Happyness follows the real-life story of Chris Gardner, a father who loves his son above all else and will do anything to stay with him. And wow, Will Smith gives a tour-de-force performance. His acting gives so much depth and complexity to his character because he's not a perfect guy who just got caught in a bad situation; sometimes he makes mistakes, he gets angry, he loses control. All of this makes the character real and sympathetic (unlike Russell Crowe in Cinderella Man). There are three scenes of extraordinary power in this film, two by Will Smith and one by Thandie Newton, and they are worth the price of admission alone.The cinematography is nothing to write home about except for one shot, the first time Will Smith walks into the brokerage firm. The editing and directing were also relatively mediocre at best. The music was a bit over the top for me, but effective nonetheless. While never comedic, most of the movie had a sort of tongue-in-cheek feel, the kind of humor Will Smith specializes in. While it was really enjoyable to watch, it sort of took away from the painful situation of homelessness by making it seem not so bad. Also, the voice-over narration was absolutely terrible. They should've completely stripped the entire movie of narration. Or at the very least taken out the "This part of my life is called..."
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0454921/