The Pursuit of Happyness is a 2006 American biographical drama film, directed by Gabriele Muccino and based on the true story of Chris Gardner. The film stars Will Smith as Gardner, an on-and-off-homeless salesman-turned stockbroker. The screenplay by Steven Conrad is based on the eponymous best-selling memoir written by Gardner with Quincy Troupe. The film was released on December 15, 2006, by Columbia Pictures. For his performance, Smith got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and a Golden Globe nomination.
Plot: In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invests the family savings in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but with a slightly clearer image. This white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his wife Linda, who leaves him and moves to New York. Without money or wife, but totally committed to his son Christopher, Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising career at the end of a six month no salary training period. There are twenty other candidates for the one position. Meanwhile, he encounters many challenges and difficulties, including a period of homelessness.
Cast
* Will Smith as Chris Gardner
* Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner Jr.
* Thandie Newton as Linda Gardner
* Brian Howe as Jay Twistle
* Dan Castellaneta as Alan Frakesh
* James Karen as Martin Frohm
* Kurt Fuller as Walter Ribbon
