当幸福来敲门经典电影英文影评

当幸福来敲门英文影评

(2006)

With a title like The Pursuit of Happyness, you expect the characters to get to the promised land. They do,

but if the journey matters more than the destination, this is a movie to skip. The Pursuit of Happyness is

long, dull, and depressing. It expands into two hours a story that could have been told more effectively in

one. This is not the feel-good movie of the season unless you believe that a few moments of good cheer

can redeem 110 minutes of gloom. Sitting through The Pursuit of Happyness is a chore. Downbeat movies

aren't inherently bad (in fact, many are powerful), but this one provides artificial characters in contrived

circumstances. How is it that movies

embedded in the realm of fiction?

Will Smith has generated Oscar buzz for his portrayal of Chris Gardner, the real-life guy whose

rags-to-riches story forms the basis of the movie. (Impoverished guy becomes capitalist poster boy.)

While it's fair to say that this is one of the best straight performances of Smith's career, it didn't blow me

away. In and of itself, the acting, while effective, is not Best Actor material, but it wouldn't surprise me if

the movie's prestige factor and Smith's popularity earn him a nod. Meanwhile, his female co-star,

Thandie Newton, isn't going to be considered for any award. Newton spends about 90% of her screen

time doing an impersonation of a harpy: screeching, bitching, and contorting her face into unpleasant

expressions. Smith's son, Jaden, is okay as the movie's child protagonist; it's unclear whether his

occasional deficiencies are the result of his acting, Steven Conrad's writing, or Gabriele Muccino's

direction, but there's not much personality behind the cute features and curly hair.

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