The guy tells Chris he's a stockbroker, and when Chris asks him if you need to have gone to college for that, the guy assures him that the answer is no. How does a guy make enough money to buy a car like that? Chris asks him affably. One day he stops on the street to chat with a white guy in a nice suit who has just pulled up to the curb in a red sports car.
(The thing comes in a plastic carrying case that makes it look like an old 1960s sewing machine one crazy homeless guy is convinced the thing is actually a time machine.) No one really wants these scanners, but Chris has sunk his family's savings into them, so he has to sell them.
"The Pursuit of Happyness," even within its slickness, gets at intangibles that allegedly grittier movies fail to capture - like how heavy a wallet can feel when you're down to your last dollar.īefore he becomes a success story, Smith's Chris Gardner spends his days knocking on doctors' doors, trying to sell them an expensive and not wholly necessary device, a portable bone-density scanner.
(I guess we like our movie poor to be easily identifiable by their dirty clothes.)īut the picture's ending - which is satisfying, possibly even happy, depending on how you look at it - is almost inconsequential it's the texture of everything leading up to it that matters. "The Pursuit of Happyness" isn't a tract about poverty in America, and perhaps partly because it's a mainstream, big-studio movie (and not a grainy indie with junkies and squalling babies), some critics have already complained that it makes homelessness look too clean, too neat and tidy.
This is a movie about the state of not having any money, and about how not having money isn't just a bald economic fact but, particularly if you have children, a spongy specter that expands to fill every minute of your day. Against all odds, he pushes toward success, eventually turning his life around.īasically, that's what happens in "The Pursuit of Happyness." And yet that outline doesn't even ruffle the surface of what the movie is about. But the internship doesn't pay, and there's no guarantee he'll be offered a job at the end of it. Chris pushes for a chance to get into a stockbroker-training program at Dean Witter Reynolds, and he makes the cut. This is a movie - set in early-1980s San Francisco and based on a true story - about an immensely likable but struggling salesman, Chris Gardner (Will Smith), who never went to college and who's having trouble making enough money to support his family, which includes a wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), and a 5-year-old son, Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Smith's son in real life).
When the movie's done, prolong the good vibes with a book about happiness, or a heartwarming TV show.The easy way to read Gabriele Muccino's "The Pursuit of Happyness" is as an inspirational story, a go-for-the-gold heart-warmer affirming that in America, anyone can pull himself up by the bootstraps and make something of himself. Not only are these favorites entertaining, but they'll brighten not-so-sunny days the second the opening credits roll.
They also have similar lead characters: "Outsiders in search of true love, who have to prove themselves and fight against adverse circumstances, and who eventually find their role in the community," Keyvan Sarkhosh, study leader and first author, said per a press release.įor the full feel-good experience, cozy up with a soft throw blanket and sweatpants. According to the study, "feel-good" movies feature humor and an element of lightness, and don't have upsetting plot twists. At the very least, you'll definitely find yourself humming to the songs from Eurovision Song Contest.īut what is a feel-good movie, exactly? A 2021 study conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics found similarities across movies that 450 participants classified as uplifting, like Love Actually and Pretty Woman. Doubtfire, and Mamma Mia! can lift your spirits when you're feeling sad-and perhaps make you more positive. Hear us out: Pressing play on feel-good movies ( and TV shows) like Legally Blonde, Girls Trip, Mrs. When life hands you lemons, it's often your remote or streaming service that'll help you make lemonade.