The Pursuit of Happyness
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 15, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The tough beauty of the picture is that it lets each viewer weigh the costs and benefits to Gardner. It's a genuinely transporting inspirational movie because it's also a cautionary tale. It doesn't downplay the hero's occasional clumsiness or pigheadedness. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
I don't think I've seen a mainstream movie get fatherhood so right since "Kramer vs . Kramer": the fear, the indulgence, the snappishness, the pre-occupied "uh-huhs" as a child natters about his day, the steamrolling waves of love. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
My sentimentality meter never went off, and Smith proved what people have forgotten since his breakthroughs in "Where the Day Takes You" and "Six Degrees of Separation" 13 years ago: He's a serious actor. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The relationship between Chris and his diminutive namesake is at the core of the film - the determination to be there for his son, no matter what; the mentoring, the pair's goofy, lovely banter. And Smith and his bright-eyed boy pull it off brilliantly. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's a beautiful and understated performance, one that hums with a richer, quieter music than Smith has mustered before. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The picture's ending -- which is satisfying, possibly even happy, depending on how you look at it -- is almost inconsequential; it's the texture of everything leading up to it that matters. The Pursuit of Happyness, even within its slickness, gets at intangibles that allegedly grittier movies fail to capture -- like how heavy a wallet can feel when you're down to your last dollar. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
A viral blast of the American Dream. It's "Rocky" with a briefcase. Read full review
75
PremiereRyan Devlin
It's not often that Hollywood is willing, or even able, to accurately dramatize what it's really like to be poor in America -- to evoke not only the circumstances, but also the sense humiliation and failure. That a European director like Gabriele Muccino, helming his first English-language film, is able to capture the essence of that experience is a testament to his skill as a filmmaker. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
While the film is roughly half grit and half sugar, it works because Smith sticks to a tougher, more rewarding recipe of 99.9 percent grit and only .1 percent sugar. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Smith wins our hearts without losing his dignity, as Chris suits up for success by day and fights off despair by night. The role needs gravity, smarts, charm, humor and a soul that's not synthetic. Smith brings it. He's the real deal. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's almost impossible to watch this movie and not, on some level beyond reason, succumb. The Pursuit of Happyness is an expert piece of calculation: a male weepie engineered for the whole family. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
If The Pursuit of Happyness didn't star Will Smith and his adorable son Jaden, it might be just another tearjerker rags-to-riches story. But their chemistry raises the level of the film, making it heartfelt and compelling. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
You may have to go back to 1973's "Paper Moon" and the father/daughter work of Ryan O'Neal and 10-year-old Tatum for equal excellence in nepotism. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The movie is essentially a vehicle for Smith, but the actor more than rises to the challenge. Rarely has attaining the American Dream seemed so impossible or daunting or so intensely, profoundly satisfying. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Still, there's a decency at the film's core and a desire to do the predictable thing in a generally unpredictable fashion. Those traits make it impossible to reject "Happyness" out of hand. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Will Smith has the right quality for the role -- he's an easy man to root for -- but he augments this by channeling some inner quality of desperation and need. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Conrad's last film, the underrated "The Weather Man," was a parade of miseries, too, but the protagonist (Nicolas Cage) didn’t move very fast in the throes of his existential crisis, and the palette (it was Chicago in winter) was glacial. Here, those crazy San Francisco hills give the movie a lift, and Muccino frames it all airily, with a glancing touch. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
For a movie conceived and executed in the mainstream Hollywood idiom, it has uncommon depth and honesty. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
It's the same old bootstraps story, an American dream artfully told, skillfully sold. To that calculated end, the filmmaking is seamless, unadorned, transparent, the better to serve Mr. Smith's warm expressiveness. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie is almost devised like a rat-in-maze experiment at the Yale psychology department. Each few minutes some new obstacle comes up for Chris, threatening to obliterate his dreams, at which point the film stands back and watches him improvise brilliantly on the run. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
For all its good performances and family values, it's a painful movie to endure. It consists of watching this poor guy suffer one agonizing setback after another for nearly two hours, and its modest emotional payoff comes only in the final moments. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Far from proving the reality of the Horatio Alger myth it peddles, Chris Gardner's story is worth celebrating precisely because he managed to beat the odds stacked so high against him. Steve Conrad's screenplay is also curiously but insistently silent on the subject of race. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
This is a slick studio production with a huge movie star and top professionals occupying every production role so that the polish of this well-made film makes even homelessness look neat and tidy. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
The Pursuit of Happyness is more inspirational than creatively inspired -- imbued with the kind of uplifting, afterschool-special qualities that can trigger a major toothache. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss/Richard Schickel
Do we care about Gardner and son? Oddly, we do, because they are so appealingly played. What more might we wish for them? A movie that's a lot less repetitive. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
"Inspired by" is an interesting phrase because the movie is more inspiring than inspired. The man's struggles are emotionally engaging, but dramatically it lacks the layering of a "Kramer vs. Kramer," which it superficially resembles. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)
An admirably unsentimental biopic with an excellent central performance, but it doesn't impact as strongly as it could. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Pursuit of Happyness is long, dull, and depressing. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The Pursuit Of Happyness represents a belated and calculated attempt to scrape off the glossy movie-star veneer and connect with the everyday struggles of living hand-to-mouth in the big city, but it's too late. Watching his (Smith's) performance here is a little like imagining an American version of "Rosetta" starring Julia Roberts. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Smith is resourceful in the role, though the story stretches one's credulity about his character's resourcefulness. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Both Smith and his son are appealing presences, but The Pursuit of Happyness seems to take place in a sociological vacuum. Gardner's insight into his difficulties begins and ends with the thought that, in the pursuit of happiness, there's a lot more pursuit involved than happiness, and unasked political questions seem to dangle ominously over the entire movie. Read full review
40
NewsweekDavid Ansen
There's an inspirational, hang-on-to-your-dreams message, but it comes only at the very end of a long, grim, painful journey. Holiday cheer is not what this movie is offering. Read full review
40
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Too emotionally slick to work, too visually glib to have an impact, made by people who think grit is something that's brought in by the prop department. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleToddy Burton
Though pretty to look at (with camerawork by Phedon Papamichael) and inspiring to contemplate, this story of human triumph needs a lot more of the human for an audience to actually experience the triumph. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The pursuit is manipulative and repetitive.
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Especially to anyone with kids, the film packs some punch. Apart from that, The Pursuit of Happyness is emotionally manipulative and way too glossy to really hit home. Read full review
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