In an effort to make a crowd-pleasing film, the horrors that Gardner must have experienced on the streets feel glossed over by the Hollywood machine.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2007

We may wonder if happiness can be bought this way, and whether the film being sold to us isn't a slightly suspect package, but Smith, sublime and moving, sells it regardless.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2007

Deserves kudos for avoiding saccharine sentiment, but its relentless emphasis on money as the cure for all ills is depressing. They might as well have called it The Pursuit of Richyness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 14, 2007

Plays like an unravelling of the Eighties comedy hit Trading Places. Instead of a smart-Alec street hustler who turns the tables on his seemingly benign patrons, we have a smart saint who simply wants to join the club.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 14, 2007

The film unspools like a souped-up vanity project.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 14, 2007

One can detect almost the spirit of a public information film nagging the audience: look, people, the American Dream doesn't come for free.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 14, 2007

That Will Smith is capable of this great performance should not be surprising.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 13, 2007

An old-fashioned Hollywood heartwarmer.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 12, 2007

Smith hits all the right notes - understated, engaging, inspirational - even if his young son threatens to charm him off the screen.

| Jan 11, 2007

An admirably unsentimental biopic with an excellent central performance, but it doesn't impact as strongly as it could.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 4, 2007

This is Smith as you've never seen him -- an unsure, struggling, frustrated guy trying to hold together his family and failing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 30, 2006

As cynical as I am, I have to admit I was completely won over by Smith's sincere and deeply effective work as a guy who was knocked down again and again, but refused to stay on the canvas.

Full Review | Dec 18, 2006

A by-the-numbers piece of Hollywood inspiration.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 17, 2006

Even the considerable charms of both Smith and the personable character he plays may not be enough to keep audiences from growing impatient to get to the good stuff.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 15, 2006

Some people will see The Pursuit of Happyness as a glorification of capitalism, but the movie is much less about 'getting' than it is about 'not having.'

Full Review | Dec 15, 2006

The Pursuit of Happyness can't imagine anything worse than being poor. Except maybe being surrounded by poor people.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 15, 2006

Ultimately, the real Chris Gardner emerges as an inspirational American success story -- and Will Smith emerges as a fine and nuanced actor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2006

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2006

A movie star who can slip easily into high-beam mode, Smith gives a restrained and nuanced turn.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 15, 2006

Smith may be the closest Hollywood has to a modern Cary Grant, an instantly likable actor comfortable in every role he attempts.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2006