THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

'''The Pursuit of Happyness''' is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 drama film produced by Overbrook Entertainment, Escape Artist, and Relativity Media, in association with and released by Columbia Pictures on December 15, 2006. Based on the true story of Chris Gardner, who secured an internship with a stock brokerage firm while homeless, the film stars Will Smith as Gardner and Smith's real-life son Jaden Smith as Gardner's son Christopher. Although the film differs from Gardner's real-life experiences in various respects, it recounts many of the challenging events faced by Gardner while pursuing the internship and caring for Christopher. The film was directed by Gabriele Muccino, an Italian director making his English-language directorial debut.

Contents

Production

Cast

Reception

Mistakes

Differences between the film and actual events

Awards

References

External links

Production

Smith insisted that Italian Gabriele Muccino direct this movie because of Muccino's style in movies such as ''L'ultimo bacio'' and ''Remember Me, My Love''. Speedcubing champion Tyson Mao was hired as a consultant to teach Will Smith how to solve a Rubik's Cube in two minutes.
Dan Castellaneta, who voices the donut-loving Homer Simpson on ''The Simpsons'', co-stars in the film as one of Gardner's superiors and requests a donut from Gardner.
At the end of the film, the real Chris Gardner walks by Will Smith and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Will Smith doing a double-take over his shoulder at him. Tyler MacNiven makes an uncredited guest appearance as the male hippie who stole one of the bone density scanners.
The filming was done in the San Francisco Bay Area, with shots of San Francisco, BART, and Piedmont.
The film uses real "street people" and real Glide church members and attenders as extras in some of the scenes featuring the church.^[1] Cecil Williams plays himself in the movie. The church choir and band, The Glide Ensemble and the John Turk Change Band, are also in the film. The Glide Ensemble soloists and band are professional performers.

Cast

★ Will Smith as Chris Gardner


★ Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner


★ Thandie Newton as Linda


★ Brian Howe as Jay Twistle


★ James Karen as Martin Frohm


★ Dan Castellaneta as Alan Frakesh


★ Kurt Fuller as Walter Ribbon


★ Scott Klace as Tim Brophy

Reception

''The Pursuit of Happyness'' garnered positive reviews from critics with a 66 percent approval rating on the site Rotten Tomatoes. Michael Medved gave ''Pursuit of Happyness'' four stars (out of four) saying "..not even the most jaded movie goers will be able to resist this film's emotional pull with an ultimately inspiring message about the implacable power of love and determination." ^[2] Jaden Smith in particular has been praised, due in part to "his natural, low-key quality" that is "both astounding and moving."^[3]
The film debuted at number-one at the box-office, making $27 million during its opening weekend and beating out such heavily-hyped films as ''Eragon'' and ''Charlotte's Web''. It was Will Smith's sixth number-one opening in a row. It has made $162,587,000 as of 3/29/07.

Mistakes

★ Throughout the film, Will Smith's character is often shown on the BART system, but even though the train network opened on September 11, 1972, it was not yet fully built out in its present form in the year the movie was set, 1981 (although at that time, all of the main BART subway lines within the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley were in daily revenue service).

★ In 1981, most of the buildings shown in the San Francisco Skyline shots were not completed yet.

★ Although in the film Chris is selling Bone-density scanners the equipment for this technology was not invented until 1987, while the film is set in 1981.

★ When Chris is running in the city you can see a guy on a cell phone

★ Another scene involving Chris running through the city, see's him pass a billboard for Zack Snyders ''300''. This movie was released in 2007.

Differences between the film and actual events

★ Most significantly, Gardner's internship was a $1000 monthly stipend, but the film claims "there was no salary."

★ Linda never existed. The mother of his child was "Jackie", his mistress who he left his wife for when she became pregnant. Also, she initially took Chris Jr. away for many months before bringing him to Chris to raise. They were never married but eventually had another child together.

★ While the film shows Chris Jr. at the age of five, he was only two years old at the time of the events of this film.

★ Because of the age of Chris Jr., the interactions in the film did not occur. However, the scene where Chris tells him, "you're a good poppa" did, in fact, occur.

★ The Rubik's Cube incident never happened. Smith came up with that idea, because he has always been fascinated with Rubik's cubes.

★ He actually spent ten days in jail for not paying his parking tickets.

★ He eventually started at Bear Stearns.

★ The actual events and his homelessness happened over the course of a few years rather than a short time as shown in this movie.

★ He sometimes spent the night underneath his desk when the shelters were full.

★ Gardner quit his job as salesman before entering the stock broker training program.

★ Gardner's medical equipment was never stolen from him.

★ In the movie Gardner states that he is from Louisiana, but Gardner is actually from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, Gardner's book indicates that his father resided in Louisiana at that time.

★ Gardner was not hit by a car.

★ The IRS going into his account to take his money did not happen.

★ He met with the "red Ferrari" man after the initial meeting to learn more about what the job involved. It was not simply a 1-minute conversation.

Awards

★ Academy Awards

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★ Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

★ Black Reel Awards

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★ Best Film- ''Nomination''

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★ Best Actor (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

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★ Best Breakthrough Performer (Jaden Smith) - ''Nomination''

★ Broadcast Film Critics Association

★
★ Best Actor (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

★
★ Best Younger Actor (Jaden Smith) - ''Nomination''

★ Golden Globe Awards

★
★ Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

★
★ Best Original Song ("A Father's Way") - ''Nomination''

★ Image Awards

★
★ Outstanding Motion Picture- '''Winner'''

★
★ Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

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★ Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Jaden Smith) - ''Nomination''

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★ Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (Thandie Newton) -''Nomination''

★ Screen Actors Guild Awards

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★ Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

★ MTV Movie Awards 2007

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★ Best Performance (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

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★ Best Breakthrough Performance (Jaden Smith) - '''Winner'''

★ BET Awards

★
★ Best Actor (Will Smith) - ''Nomination''

References

1. S.F. homeless earn paychecks for work as film extras
2. Audio review of ''The Pursuit of Happyness'' Michael Medved
3. ''Oscar pursuit of Jaden Smith would be natural'' by Claudia Puig, USA Today, December 22, 2006 section E1

External links

★ Official site

★ History vs. Hollywood - ''The Pursuit of Happyness'' at Chasing the Frog

★ The Pursuit of Happyness At Box Office Mojo

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★

★ Pursuit of Happyness review at Premiere Magazine's site

★ The Pursuit of Happyness at The-Numbers

★ The Pursuit of Happyness Reviews at Metacritic

★ ''The Pursuit of Happyness'' premiere in San Francisco on ''Sidewalks Entertainment''

★ ''Chris Gardner has pursued happyness, from the Glide soup kit'', San Francisco Chronicle

★ Film Review from Ignore Magazine

★ A Look at the Film by Film Perspective

★ Synopsis and review by PopOpinions.com