'The Pursuit of Happyness' is a pretty downbeat and depressing viewing experience for what is supposed to be a Hollywood ?feel-good? movie...

If you've seen the trailer, you've practically seen the entire movie: Chris Gardener (Will Smith) is a marginally employed salesman who has to take care of his five-year-old son (played by Smith?s real life son, Jaden Smith) after his wife dumps him. Smith?s character is accepted into an internship program at a huge stockbroker firm. Problem is that only one out of the twenty interns will finally get a full-time position at the company. Will it be Will Smith? Does a bear, you know, in the woods?

Biggest problem is, however, that the internship pays no money and in the meantime Gardener?s character has to endure all kinds of economic and financial hardships. At one point he and his son actually have to sleep in a public toilet after being evicted from the cheap motel where they'd been staying.

Soon afterwards Gardener?s character finds a place for them to stay at a homeless shelter. Space however is limited and each afternoon they start queuing along with a horde of other homeless people left destitute by Reaganomics (the movie takes place in the early 1980s in San Francisco). Most of the people are ultimately turned away.

By the movie?s end we are informed by some onscreen lettering that Smith?s real-life movie counterpart went on to become a multimillionaire. Yeah. But what about all the other hundreds of guys queuing at the homeless shelter each night?Something tells me that they didn?t exactly become multimillionaire owners of their own stockbroker companies...

It's never any fun watching people struggle financially and 'The Pursuit of Happyness' is no exception. In fact the movie is downright depressing and won?t make you feel any better about your life (unless you?re the sadistic type who takes joy from the suffering of others).

The last few seconds of the movie are supposed to provide its ?feel good? factor ? but it's a case of too little, too late. It doesn?t make up for all the degradation and suffering we had to witness to that point. The film?s ending in effect asks us to feel a whole lot better about all the homeless and destitute people we see begging at traffic lights each day because, hey, a few guys like Bill Gates and Harry Oppenheimer did actually make it. If they can make it, then anybody can, right?

Wrong. 'The Pursuit of Happyness' is one of those ?rags to riches? stories that expects us to swallow capitalism?s biggest lie: if you can?t ?make it?, then it?s your own stupid fault. Except it isn?t. We can?t all be multimillionaire owners of stockbroker firms ? someone still has to collect the garbage, clean the toilets, work at the local McDonald?s...

Extras: Much is made in all the extras about 'Pursuit of Happyness' being directed by an Italian who can hardly speak any English. According to the many people interviewed for the DVD?s various interviews and making-of features he supposedly brings a new perspective on the ?American dream.? 'Pursuit of Happyness' however offers no interesting perspectives on modern capitalism in the way it regurgitates its depressingly predictable rags to riches tale.

Worth checking out on the disc however is a short documentary about the Rubik?s Cube in which people actually solve the darned thing blindfolded! Yeah, I wouldn?t have believed it if I hadn?t seen it myself...