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The Pursuit of Happyness

2006

Gabriele Muccino

Will Smith, Thandiwe Newton, Jaden Smith, Dan Castellaneta ...

7.4

84,212

Drama Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a family man struggling to make ends meet. Despite his valiant attempts to help keep the family afloat, the mother (Thandie Newton) of his five-year-old son Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) is buckling under the constant strain of financial pressure. No longer able to cope, she reluctantly decides to leave. Chris, now a single father, continues to doggedly pursue a better-paying job using every ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"An American dream artfully told, skillfully sold. To that calculated end, the filmmaking is seamless, unadorned, transparent, the better to serve Mr. Smith’s warm expressiveness."	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Smith wins our hearts without losing his dignity (...) The role needs gravity, smarts, charm, humor and a soul that’s not synthetic. Smith brings it. He’s the real deal."	POS
United States	Kevin Crust Los Angeles Times	"A routine domestic drama (...) An unexceptional film with exceptional performances"	NEU
United States	Claudia Puig USA Today	"Heartfelt and compelling. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
Canada	Liam Lacey The Globe and Mail	"Both Smith and his son are appealing presences, but The Pursuit of Happyness seems to take place in a sociological vacuum"	NEU
United States	Kyle Smith The Wall Street Journal	"A viral blast of the American Dream. It's "Rocky" with a briefcase."	POS
United States	Michael Sragow Baltimore Sun	"It's a genuinely transporting inspirational movie because it's also a cautionary tale"	POS
United States	Joe Morgenstern The Wall Street Journal	"'The Pursuit of Happyness' goes beyond tugging at our heartstrings. It plucks them, strokes them, strums them, plays them for all they're worth. That's both the strength and the weakness of this inspirational drama"	NEU
United States	Scott Foundas LA Weekly	"For a movie conceived and executed in the mainstream Hollywood idiom, it has uncommon depth and honesty"	POS
United States	Scott Tobias AV Club	"Watching his (Smith's) performance here is a little like imagining an American version of "Rosetta" starring Julia Roberts"	NEU
United States	Cynthia Fuchs Common Sense Media	"Jaden Smith is adorable; he delivers an endearing performance (...) A simple, sentimental, but ultimately inspiring movie."	POS
United States	Toddy Burton Austin Chronicle	"Though pretty to look at and inspiring to contemplate, this story of human triumph needs a lot more of the human for an audience to actually experience the triumph."	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"For all the film's occasional cheesiness, it's entertaining, good-natured and decently acted - and interesting in that it talks about the unglamorous subject of poverty (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Brian Lowry Variety	"Smith’s heartfelt performance is easy to admire. But the movie’s painfully earnest tone should skew its appeal to the portion of the audience that, admittedly, has catapulted many cloying TV movies into hits"	NEU

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