Pursuit of Happyness = Letdown. I blame Oprah.

It was a good movie. Inspirational, heart-warming, hard-work-pays-off, all that. But it easily should have made it into my top 5, and it definitely didn't. Not by a long shot. What wrecked it for me was seeing the real life man, Chris Gardner, in an interview with Oprah. [Don't ask... it was probably 2:30am, I couldn't sleep, and there was nothing else on. Probably.]

My complaint isn't what you would typically expect regarding a man-turned-blockbuster scenario, in which real life just isn't exciting enough, tragic enough, big enough to make into a movie. The man accomplished amazing things in the face of enormous adversity. His story is incredible and inspiring, and needs to be shared. But here's my problem - the movie never touches on how he uses his success once he obtains it.

Everyone knows he landed the impossible job, maintained a healthy relationship with his son against all odds, and is now worth many, many millions of dollars. Which is incredible in and of itself! But did you know he also frequently visits Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, the homeless shelter where he and his son used to stay? He comes in and sits down with the other guests [homeless], being able to completely relate to what they're going through right now. Or that he was heavily involved with a $50 million project directed towards providing housing for the impoverished and homeless? Or that 10% of the profits generated by his brokerage firm support education in the surrounding communities?

What frustrates me most is that it would have been so easy to show in the movie. In fact, I was completely waiting for it. I could see the ending before it even came... Chris and his kid walking down the street. Fade to black. Fade back in. "Present Day". A 10 second clip of him and his now-grown-up son visiting the homeless shelter. A few more captions, about his successes both in his business and humanitarian efforts. "The End." The only problem was, it never faded back in. One additional scene, and the entire basis of the movie would have been shifted from money to people.

This is a story not only of extraordinary success, but of sharing and using our victories to help others. Chris Gardner never forgot what it was like, and is now using his gifts to help others get out of similar situations. So often movies take real-life stories and extort them drastically; why take an extraordinary story to start with, and chop off the rarest and most precious part??


[To Oprah: On the one-in-a-billion chance you ever read this, I don't actually blame you. In fact, I was quite thankful for seeing the interview! But I'm told that titles need to be catchy in order for posts to be read. And I guess if you really are reading this, it must have worked!!]