The Pursuit of Happyness 2006

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ultimately, the real Chris Gardner emerges as an inspirational American success story -- and Will Smith emerges as a fine and nuanced actor. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Smith is terrific and moving in this film. The film itself is more conventional. Yet it's better-crafted and less obviously ruthless in the pathos department than you'd expect. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie is an economic cliff-hanger. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Smith is resourceful in the role, though the story stretches one's credulity about his character's resourcefulness. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, 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. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Will Smith has the right quality for the role -- he's an easy man to root for -- but he augments this by channeling some inner quality of desperation and need. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: While he doesn't stint on the warm 'n' fuzzies, Italian director Gabriele Muccino doesn't mind showing us what sleeping in a homeless shelter or, worse yet, in the men's room at a BART station, looks like. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: A by-the-numbers piece of Hollywood inspiration. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: This is Smith as you've never seen him -- an unsure, struggling, frustrated guy trying to hold together his family and failing. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a fine film, with a portrait of fatherhood that feels scuffed and driven and real. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: There are worse ways to spend the holidays, and, at the least, it will likely make you appreciate your own circumstances. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: The whole thing works. This earnest, modest, sweet little ode to paternal love is meant to warm the cockles of our hearts in a season overrun with cockle-warming, and even a recalcitrant Scrooge may sniff back a few salty droplets. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's almost impossible to watch this movie and not, on some level beyond reason, succumb. The Pursuit of Happyness is an expert piece of calculation: a male weepie engineered for the whole family. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Pursuit of Happyness isn't just a balm intended to heal negative depictions of AWOL African-American fathers. The movie pays respect to all single parents striving to do the right thing with few resources. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Pursuit of Happyness attempts to be a warm movie with a good message. But its message is substantially skewed and the resulting warmth factor is decidedly low. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Pursuit of Happyness speaks eloquently to the anxieties of our own time, when staying afloat, let alone movin' on up, has rarely been tougher. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The subject of The Pursuit of Happyness denies all the odds and refuses to quit, and this movie has the same fighting, American spirit. Read more

Robert W. Butler, Dallas Morning News: Few on-screen father-son relationships have felt more authentic than that depicted by Will Smith and his real-life son in The Pursuit of Happyness. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: For a movie conceived and executed in the mainstream Hollywood idiom, it has uncommon depth and honesty. And the thing it's honest about is the embarrassment and humiliation of being poor. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The movie is essentially a vehicle for Smith, but the actor more than rises to the challenge. Rarely has attaining the American Dream seemed so impossible or daunting or so intensely, profoundly satisfying. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Pursuit of Happyness is at its most resonant when the metaphorical stone Gardner strains to push up the mountain of his desires rolls back on him. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Honest tears, honestly earned, is the credo and it's practiced here. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Smith may be the closest Hollywood has to a modern Cary Grant, an instantly likable actor comfortable in every role he attempts. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: For anybody who ever has been at the bottom, or feared they were headed there, it's a reminder that there's no guarantee of luck or happiness in the Declaration of Independence -- just the right to pursue it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: How is it that movies 'inspired by a real story' often feel more fake than those fully embedded in the realm of fiction? Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Some people will see The Pursuit of Happyness as a glorification of capitalism, but the movie is much less about 'getting' than it is about 'not having.' Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: For an expensive, mainstream Hollywood movie, The Pursuit of Happyness is crisscrossed with mixed motives. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The Pursuit of Happyness can't imagine anything worse than being poor. Except maybe being surrounded by poor people. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: You have to wonder why director Gabriele Muccino chose to dramatize the poor man's plight by having him run constantly through the streets of San Francisco. What ever became of quiet desperation? Read more

Mark Salisbury, Time Out: Smith hits all the right notes - understated, engaging, inspirational - even if his young son threatens to charm him off the screen. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: At its core The Pursuit of Happyness is a good story -- one that's literally rags to riches, and didn't need the many tweaks and embellishments that Italian director Gabriele Muccino and writer Steven Conrad have added. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Thankfully, humor leavens the dark journey, and little Jaden and his jokes go a long way to warm our hearts. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: ... The Pursuit of Happyness winds up being a little like the determined salesman Mr. Gardner himself: easy to root for, certainly, but not that much fun to spend time with. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: The movie, the first English-language film directed by Italian Gabriele Muccino, is too emotionally slick to work, too visually glib to have an impact. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The Pursuit of Happyness is the biography of a real guy named Christopher Gardner, whom Will Smith, charming and bright, embodies to the fingertips. Read more