Pursuit of Happyness

The Hollywood Version:
Chris Gardner is a hard-working man with a pain-in-the-ass wife and an adorable little son. All Gardner wants to do is make enough of a living to provide for his son.

Chris Gardner wows an employee at Dean Wittersolves by solving a Rubik's Cube in record time, and he apparently passes the only test needed to qualify a man to become a stock broker. He toils for months, sleeping in subways and churches with his son at his side, but in the end it all pays off when he claims the one and only opening at Dean Witter, crying tears of joy and getting jiggy wit it in the streets of San Francisco.

In Reality:
Gardner did get a chance to show his stuff in the Dean Witter training program (though his acceptance had nothing to do with solving a Rubik's Cube). But, as the more honest book version points out, he apparently wasn't quite the father the film made him out to be.

First, he was so focused on getting a job and earning his first million that, he didn't even know where the hell his son was for the first four months of the program. And apparently his son was concieved when he was married to another woman.

In addition, instead of being arrested just before his big interview due to parking tickets, it seems that Chris was actually arrested after Jackie accused him of domestic violence.

"That's right son, you gotta keep that pimp hand strong."

Chris did indeed get his life turned around after landing the job as a broker. There were just some things in Gardner's past that they couldn't have Will Smith do on screen. Like selling drugs, or doing cocaine with his mistress.

My Thoughts:

I'm surprised that they made the Hollywood Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, to be very different from the actual Chris Gardner. In the movie he was seen as a good father and a guy who really wanted a good job to support himself and his son. And it turns out that he was not like that in real life. I think Hollywood left out some important things that he did. It's funny because screenwriters always make a person seem like a good guy when really they're not/ What we are missing are the real struggle that Chris Gardner was facing. I think they should have added all the other things he did to make it seem like he really worked his ass off to pursue the "happyness" he wanted.