Mary Grace L.

Sabong
LlB-2

"Happiness is at once the best, the noblest and the pleasantest of

things."

-Aristotle

"The Pursuit of Happyness," set in San Francisco in 1981, at the

dawn of the age of go-go capitalism, comes from a true story broadcast of

Chris Gardner, a salesman who labored to keep himself and his son off the

streets. The cockeyed spelling of "Happyness" comes from a misspelled

graffiti outside the Chinatown day-care facility.

In the movie, Gardner is stuck in a loveless marriage, in a terrible

sales job, and in a low income situation that could come apart at the

ridges at any moment. Indeed, everything in his life does come apart.

With landlords and the Internal Revenue Service on their tail, father and

son relocate from apartment to motel to homeless shelter and, at a low

point, to a Bay Area Rapid Transit men's room. All that he has left to fight

for is his five-year old son and the opportunity to work in a competitive -

but no guarantees - internship as a stock-broker.

However, despite getting stuck in a life that is nickel-and-diming him

to death, Gardner never loses hope. The lower he falls, the more he is

endowed with ragged nobility and will. Today, Gardner runs the Chicago-

based brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co., his economic redemption owing

to the stockbrokers' internship.

 This biographical movie emphasizes a fundamental lesson in life.

That is, to never give up, even in the midst of a series of unfortunate

events in our lives. The pursuit of happiness is a road less traveled since

most people choose the easy life, not realizing that success is most

rewarding when coupled with hard work.

Trials bring out the best in us, allowing us to know, how far we can

endure the hard life and that there is nothing we cannot surpass. Had

Gardner surrendered to the ordeals that life tested him through, he would

never have reaped the rewards of all his hardships.

This sensibly touching movie speaks eloquently to the anxieties of

our own time, when staying afloat, let alone moving on up, has rarely

been tougher. Throughout "The Pursuit of Happyness," Smith's character

must chase everything. He has to chase a place to live. He has to chase

his internship. He has to chase his potential clients. He has to chase lost

merchandise. He has to chase buses, subways, bums and hippies. But he

never stopped. Because he knew, that at the end of all the chasing, there

lies the road towards the fulfillment of his dreams, not only for himself,

but more importantly, for his son.