Will Smith may have top billing but the real star of The Pursuit Of Happyness is a clunky bone density machine. When we first meet the machine, it’s the property of Chris Garner (Smith), a decent guy struggling to make ends meet in Reagan’s America. He’s in debt, about to be evicted from his San Francisco apartment and is slowly coming to terms with the fact that bone density machines are not the get-rich-quick scheme he was hoping for. When he meets a stockbroker with an Italian sports car he thinks he knows where the real action is and sets his sights on playing the markets. Sadly, it’s hard to realise his dream on a low income. When his appalling wife (the characteristically shrill Newton) leaves him to raise his five year old son alone his prospects only worsen and the headlining machine becomes alternately, a burden, his only hope and a handy way to distract him from the Yellow Brick Road.
Based on a true story, The Pursuit Of Happyness is far less saccharine than we had any right to expect from a movie starring “Will Smith and his real life son.” Instead the film offers kitchen sink realities American style, that is, delivered at a belting pace and with an upbeat ending. It’ll do just fine thank you.