Just Give Me A Reason

Will Smith shines in The Pursuit of Happyness, a rags-to-riches tale about love, family, and pursuing the American Dream.

Smith portrays Christopher Gardner, a salesman struggling to make endsmeet for his wife (Thandie Newton) and son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith). As the family’s financial problems mount, his wife caves under the pressure and abandons him and their son.

Gardner’s luckgoes from bad to worse as he and his son are evicted from their home and must survive on the streets of San Francisco. The father and son are forced to move from place to place seeking shelter whereverthey can find it, even spending one night in a subway bathroom.

Things start looking up for Gardner when he applies for an internship with a stock brokerage firm. Though the internship is unpaid,one of the 20 interns will be chosen to stay with the company full-time. The ambitious salesman battles insurmountable odds to make himself stand out from his competitors in the hopes of landing theposition.

Smith and his real-life son Jaden bring an emotional depth to the characters they play. The somber role of Gardner is quite a change for Smith, who is known for his less serious rolesbattling aliens in the Men in Black movies and portraying a matchmaking “date doctor” in the romantic comedy Hitch.

He tackles the role with a determined precision and turns out a spectacularperformance, which is already generating talk of an Oscar. Though most scenes in the film have a very solemn feel, Smith’s cautious optimism and ambitious nature make us want to root for him to succeed. In arole that could have easily been played syrupy-sweet, Smith instead chooses to let his raw emotions shine through adding a layer of realism.

His son, Jaden, proves to be a natural as well.Portraying a child whose life and economic background is so completely opposite from his own doesn’t seem to be a challenge for the young actor. He seems to have a true understanding of the character’s...