(no subject)

[cwfilmbuff]

10. The Pursuit of Happyness

I can see why Will Smith got an Oscar nomination for this role. He did a good job making an otherwise uninteresting movie at least watchable.

Not that there’s anything inherently bad about the movie, there’s just not anything really good about it either. There needed to be more than constantly watching the world throw obstacles at Chris Gardner as he tried to gain happiness through a better-paying job. And when he does get that job (don’t talk to me about spoilers; it’s one of the most predictable endings since Free Willy), it’s one of the most anti-climactic endings I’ve ever seen. I was still waiting for the actual emotional climax after all the suffering he’d gone through when the credits started rolling. Good acting, but not a very good movie.

And I have to agree with my sister that the marketing department made a huge mistake naming the movie after a scene they couldn’t show in the trailers.

Comments

[forever-tims.livejournal.com]

Would you please just tell me about that scene. Email it to me or something because it drives me crazy that nobody will talk about it and the whole thing is just pissing me off. I'll probably never see the movie, so it's not like you'll be spoiling anything for me. The one time I asked someone who wasn't all "Oh, no, you just have to see it!" they didn't even remember that scene or what the reason was for that hideous misspelling; they didn't even really realize the word was spelled wrong. So they were no help. Will you help me understand why anyone in the world would spell a word like that? Please?

[filmbuff.livejournal.com]

There's a mural out front of his son's day care that says something about "happyness." He tells the woman running the day care to correct it a couple of times (for some reason he thinks kids should learn correct spelling) but she never gets around to it.

It's not in any of the advertising because the other problem with the mural that the day care woman never gets around to fixing is graffiti, including the word "fuck," which his son does learn.

[forever-tims.livejournal.com]

Seriously? That's it? That's the stupidest thing I've heard all day. Why would you name a whole movie after that? Why not just call it the pursuit of fucking stupidity?

[forever-tims.livejournal.com]

p.s. thanks for the linky love

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, came across this post wile randomly browsing and just had to comment.

First of all the correct spelling of the word role in this case is "role", not "roll".

Second of all, the movie was named after the book it was based on. That would be the book of the true-life experiences of the author. So if you have problems with the experiences this character has, you'd have to take that up with him.

I realize that this comment won't make it through the screening process (critics never take criticism very well) but at least I'll get my points across to you. This is the problem I have with people who call themselves film critics, whether they be paid for their opinions or not. Opinions are simply opinions. No one's opinion is more valuable than anyone else's opinion. It constantly amazes me how many so called critics don't actually know anything about the film they are criticizing. It's inexcuseabe not to know this movie was based on an autobiography.

[filmbuff.livejournal.com]

Typo noted and corrected.

Yes, I realize the movie was named after the novel, which was based on actual events. The movie opens and closes with reminders that Gardner is an actual person, least anyone in the audience forget. What bothers me as a moviegoer is that a very interesting true story was not presented in a way to make it interesting to the audience. If anything, it's a disrespect to Gardner's accomplishments to make a sub-par film out of them. Autobiographical or not, the filmmakers are telling a story, and this one wasn't told well.

What I'm curious about is this: where in my post to I indicate that I believe this to be a work of fiction, or that I consider myself a critic? Also, thank you for the vote of confidence regarding the "screening process."