The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness is a 2006 Hollywood film starring Will Smith and his son, Jaden Smith, then aged five.  Based on a true story, it chronicles a year in the life of Chris Gardner, a single dad who is down on his luck.  He is a talented salesman who has invested his life's savings in a piece of medical technology which he sells to hospitals.  Unfortunately, sales are slow and money is very, very tight.  His wife is ground down by their life of struggle, and leaves him and their young son, Chris Jr.  His landlord is hassling Chris for rent money he doesn't have, and Chris Jr.'s daycare doesn't seem to be up to much, but it's all Chris can afford.  

Then one day Chris sees a man getting out of a flashy red sports car, and asks him, jokingly, "What do you do and how do you do it?"  The man replies that he's a stockbroker.  Through much persistence, Chris manages to get himself on a shortlist of people being considered for a job training to be a stockbroker - a job which could allow him and his son the life he has dreamed of.  But, to his dismay, he learns that it's an unpaid internship.  Against the odds, and despite his precarious financial situation, Chris gets a place on the internship with 30 other men all competing for one job.  Not only that, but because he needs to collect his son from daycare, he can't stay late like all the others: he has to do a better job than them in less time in order to get the job.  

Chris's landlord finally loses patience, and Chris and his son arrive home one day to find their belongings dumped outside in plastic sacks and the locks changed.  In one of the most touching scenes in the film, they go to a women's shelter where Chris takes one of the workers aside and begs for her help to house him and his son.  She is genuinely sorry for them, but they cannot take men.  However, she directs him to a hostel for men which will take both of them if they can get there early enough to secure a good place in the queue and hence a room for the night.  And so they spend their evenings sleeping in a dormitory in a homeless shelter, while during the day Chris endeavours to secure accounts with clients worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.  One afternoon, one of Chris's bosses asks to borrow five dollars, not knowing that it is Chris's last five dollar bill, the money he needs to pay for him and his son to get the bus to the shelter on time.  They arrive late and are turned away.  In another gruelling scene, they spend the night locked in a railway station toilet, Chris comforting his son while strangers bang on the door.  The many indignities, both large and small, caused by their poverty are very hard to watch.

Finally [SPOILER ALERT], and perhaps not surprisingly given that it's a Hollywood film with an A-list cast, Chris wins the day and gets the coveted position in the stockbroking firm.  He really is an excellent salesman.  As his bosses shake his hand, they ask Chris, "Was it as easy as you made it look?"  Tears roll down his cheeks and, despite the fact that it is apparently a moment of victory, I found myself feeling desolate.  He has been through so much pain and anguish, and I wasn't ready to forget about all that and move on yet.  For me, the final victory did not eclipse the painful struggle.  It didn't feel like a happy moment.  Perhaps this was partly a recognition of the terrible cost of getting to that point; of all Chris and his son had been through.  A friend recently pointed out that the film equates happiness with financial success, which seemed to him to be a warped view.  Surely Chris could have got a sales job somewhere less glamorous and have avoided putting his child to bed in a homeless shelter?  

While I agree entirely that money doesn't make people happy, poverty certainly makes people miserable.  And of course not everyone living in poverty has the skills or the opportunities to pursue a glittering career in the stock market.  This film left me feeling very uneasy; reflecting on the privileges and opportunities I have had, and wondering about all the Chris and Chris Jr.s in the world who are sleeping in a hostel tonight.