"Happyness" Provides Release from Injustice

Catharsis, n., the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. After being led through the emotional ocean of "The Pursuit of Happyness," it becomes clear that this definition could also be describing that film, the CAC movie this week.

The movie opens with depression. Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, has run into tough times. His family, consisting of his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) and his son Christopher (Jaden Smith), is falling apart as the result of his poor business choice. The medical business that he bought into, selling a type of bone imaging system, is failing, leaving him without any money for his labor or any savings. His wife is working double shifts to try to pick up the slack, and they still can't pay rent, taxes or parking tickets.

Gardner, however, is a good man. His work is for his family, nothing more. He tries to teach his son life lessons in many of their conversations, he gets involved in and upset about poor conditions in his son's day care, and he tries to placate his ever more impatient wife. He even applies for an internship at Dean Witter, a stock brokerage.

Despite all this, it quickly becomes evident that he can only depend on himself. As we first watch his wife leave him, then the debt start piling up, we slowly realize that he is up to the task. He manages to get the internship, despite his lack of an impressive education and despite the fact that he had to run to the interview from jail, where he was held because of unpaid parking tickets. He manages to sell his remaining medical machines, buying him some time.

That's all it buys him, though. He is still unhappy, still struggling. In one of the most important lines of the movie, Gardner references Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence, saying, "[I thought about 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." For much of the movie we agree with him.

What is heartbreaking throughout the movie are the sections of happiness in the midst of his despair. A touching scene with his son is closely followed by Gardner holding him in the locked restroom of a subway station, crying with restraint. For every time that Gardner works to be a father, the bleakness of his situation wears him down just enough to cause his son distress.

These scenes are acted superbly by Smith and his son. Both are people, likeable and skilled, yet with faults. Their breakdowns and peaks are all acted with restraint. Everything is rounded-off in order to create characters that are, like most people, relatively without extremes.

All this leads to the end of the film, which, in lifting the despair and stress that has by this point worked its way into your bones, borders on euphoric. Not only is it good to see Gardner finally succeed, but the scene is also the high point of Smith's acting. When he wipes the tears of joy from his eyes, fumbling with his glasses and running straight to his son, all the while with a look of vindication, we can absolutely empathize with him.