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Christopher Gardner: And it was at that time that I thought about Thomas Jefferson writing that Declaration of Independence. Him saying that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I thought about how he knew to put the ‘pursuit’ in there, like no one can actually have happiness. We can only pursue it.

Different episodes in Chris’ life:

Riding the Bus
Being Stupid
Running/Chasing
Paying taxes

The Pursuit of Happyness flowed through and through.

It was not the family-friendly plot or the feel-good ambience. Neither the popcorn-conversation-mildness nor the familiarity with Smith’s face. It was something which worked beyond all of that.
Ther are no pointable impressive things in the first half-a rags to riches theme, it WORKS big time because of the treatment, and little nuances like the use of Music to elevate the possibilities of a scene.

It is the lack of things that makes you sit and notice how great the film is.

There is a second subtextual element that was working all the while beneath all the visible evidences.
And THAT is what the distinguishing and distinctive feature was in here was.

Thandie Newton played her annoying wife bit to the core. Her character and performance strengthened Chris’(Smith) character, and further complemened Smith’s sparkling and rightly Oscar deserving act(haven’t seen Whitaker’s Last King but this one surely had the potential and the ‘germ’), an act studied in its nuances, and relatable in every minutest of scenarios and situations.

The story is commendable because in spite of the probables and the unavoidables, it manages to brilliantly capture the small things that happen between the recordable acts(which constitute the ‘acts’ in a screenplay), in the life of the protagonist, the everyday-running-on-street-guy, who is trying to live an existence out of selling Bone Density Scanners(which give you a little clearer X-Ray at twice the price) amidst juggling with the responsibility of financial security of his despicable wife and lovable kid, another memorable performance. Smith and Smith look convincing together on screen. No prizes for guessing why.

Some Quotes from the film:

Christopher Gardner: [to his son] You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.

________________________________________
Martin Frohm: What would you say if man walked in here with no shirt, and I hired him? What would you say?
Christopher Gardner: He must have had on some really nice pants.

________________________________________
Reverend Williams: The important thing about that freedom train, is it’s got to climb mountains. We ALL have to climb mountains, you know. Mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low. Yes, we know what those mountains are here at Clive. We sing about them.

Christopher Gardner: Maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue. And maybe we can actually never have it no matter what.

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