The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

MIMDB score: 8.1
Current IMDB score: 7.9
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Main Actors you care about: Will Smith, Thandie Newton, Jaden Smith

Why I liked it: It's just another person to look up to in life.  Will Smith's character struggles like most people dream they do.  Whenever he says things like "this part of my life, this part right here" I get really happy.  I do that so often in my life since watching the movie.  "This part of my life, this part right here is called going to weddings." That's currently where I'm at in my life.  I'm sure whenever the next step starts, I'll say something similar to myself.  It's a good way to zoom out and view my life in the third person.

What stands out: Will Smith.  He did fantastic.

What I Would Change (if anything): I wish the mom wouldn't have left.  I get it, life is hard and you aren't strong enough to handle it.  That's lame though.  Every life has good in it.  You really need to see that by the time you have kids.  Maybe she was going through something but I don't think he was being that awful of a person or that the situation was that awful before she left.  It got worse after she left of course partly because she left.  Maybe I'm being too hard on her but I feel like she should have stayed with the family but I wasn't in her shoes so I guess I can't be too hard on her.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
"It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?"
Fantastic.  Most people are never fully happy.  They are always not quite there and always in pursuit of it though.  This might just be personal bias but I believe that is true.  You might get there for a short period of time but then time will go by and things will change and you won't be fully happy again.  What the quote is getting at is you will always be in pursuit of happiness.  The title's misspelling indicates this.  Happyness is in the title but it's supposed to be spelled: happiness.  It's so close but it's still pursing to become happiness.  I maybe reading into it but I like to think that's what they intended to do with that misspelling.

I think it's okay not be truly happy because it's like perfection.  Perfection is great to think about but it's not obtainable.  It is unequivocally healthy to pursue perfection.  Giving up pursuit because you know perfection is not going to be obtained by you doesn't make sense.  

Christopher Gardner: Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you... You can't do something. Not even me. All right?
Christopher: All right.
Christopher Gardner: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.

I actually find this moment a little cheesy.  Mostly because I've heard something like this thousands of times.  Chase your dreams.  It's sad when good quotes don't do anything for you because you've already thought through or heard the idea a few dozen times.  I mentioned it because it's considered a really good moment in the movie and it kind of is.

Christopher: Hey dad, you wanna hear something funny? There was a man who was drowning, and a boat came, and the man on the boat said "Do you need help?" and the man said "God will save me". Then another boat came and he tried to help him, but he said "God will save me", then he drowned and went to Heaven. Then the man told God, "God, why didn't you save me?" and God said "I sent you two boats, you dummy!"

See if you've heard that before you won't like it as much.  It's well done in the movie because the kid delivers it well and the placement of it I think is great.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Seven Pounds, Similar feeling from What Dreams May Come

"Side" note:  The world's current largest rubic's cube is 17x17x17.  I'm sure many people know the movie is based on the real life of Chris Gardner.  Less known is the real Chris Gardner walks past the fake Chris Gardner at the end of the movie.