Pursuit of Happiness - Movie Review

Rationale

The Pursuit of Happiness, Chris Gardner a broke single father and a struggling salesman of medical bone density scanners, fights to overcome obstacles of life and attempts to make ends meet. The journey of a Chris's life in various phases trying to pursue happiness. The physical side of Chris's journey is trying to earn a living and keep him and his son off the streets. He encounters many challenges throughout the film including paying for parking tickets, money in the bank getting frozen and all these affects him trying to earn a living. This movie involved different levels of difficulty; staying the night in public bathrooms to landing an internship for a renowned stock brokerage firm. The director deliberately contrasted both his good times and bad to show how life is all about ups and downs and sometimes we learn more from the downs of life. Journey is also defined with a beginning and an end. This is evident in this movie where Chris is struggling at the start but ends up owning his own multi-million brokerage firm. There is also an inner journey present in this movie. With everything against him, having nothing but the clothes on his back, Chris never forgets what may be the most important thing to him, being a good father and ultimately trying to be happy. In the 3rd stanza of the poem "An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow" it describes a trait that Chris had within this movie where the man in the poem sobs but with dignity. Chris didn't deny what was happening but instead accepted it didn't make a big deal out of the whole situation.

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