Writing about Gabriele Muccino‘s The Pursuit of Happyness, Newsweek‘s David Ansen gives it a thumbs sideways: “I respect the movie’s tact, its honest exploration of homelessness, its surprising refusal to exult in the rags-to-riches aspects of Chris Gardner‘s story,” he says, “but I can’t say I was transported. There’s a repetitious, one-note quality to the storytelling — the bone-density machine Chris sells gets stolen one too many times — that adds to the sense of oppression. I didn’t see the ’20/20′ show about the real Gardner that inspired the movie. But I suspect I would have come away more amazed and moved than I was by this honorable but dogged effort.” Views like these are why this film has a substandard 66% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
