Feel good stories are supposed to make you do just that, feel good. But what happens when such a movie makes you feel so absolutely depressed throughout that you just don’t know how you can be brightened up by the end? Will Smith’s latest vehicle, The Pursuit of Happyness, does just that. It is a movie designed to carry an inspirational message, but first the audience, and more importantly Smith’s character, Chris Gardner, must go through hell.

Set in early 80s San Francisco, the film finds Gardner as a bone density scanner salesman who is quite down on his luck. He blew his life savings on these scanners; his wife, Linda (Thandi Newton) is always questioning him. The only thing keeping them together is the love for their five-year-old son, Christopher, in the introductory role for Smith’s real son, Jayden.

It is when the elder Smith’s character spots the Ferrari of a Dean Witter stockbroker. Seeing this car and having a brief conversation with its owner inspires Gardner to change his life and become a stock broker. He eventually gets an interview with Dean Witter and earns a spot in their internship program.

The odds are certainly against him, but Gardner still enters the program—which he discovers is unpaid—in order to try to earn the job offered to only one intern at the end of the program. To further Chris’ string of bad luck his life leaves to live in New York with her sister. The movie follows the trials and tribulations of Gardner as he valiantly struggles to make ends meet while trying to attract new customers to Dean Witter and maybe sell a bone density scanner or two along the way in order to make some quick cash.

True to its title, the movie is about that tenant from the Declaration of Independence of the pursuit of happiness (and yes it is explained in the film why it is spelled “happyness”). Gardner is constantly trying to do things in order to make his life, and more importantly his son’s life, better. Although at times it is true they are struggling mightily, Gardner knows (or at least hopes) that if he perseveres, in the end everything will work itself out.

This film is almost a pure character study of Chris Gardner; there is not much plot to decipher. Smith certainly passes the test with flying colors. His acting is superb and surely enough to garner some best acting nominations (at press time he had been nominated for a Golden Globe for his acting in this film). Because the clear focus in the film is Smith’s character, there is hardly any insight or development of the other characters in the film. It seems as if going into the film it was Smith’s goal was to earn an acting award, so he had the focus stay on him at all times.

A good portion of the film is dedicated to the relationship between Chris and his son. There is clearly a deep and loving chemistry between father and son, which certainly stems from their real-life relationship as father and son. Jayden Smith steals the show as the younger Gardner because at times he is smart, witty and just really darn cute.

The Pursuit of Happyness is an engaging and superbly acted character piece for Will Smith. It may not be the most exciting film in theaters right now, but you would be hard pressed to find a movie out there now that delivers a more powerful acting performance. The American Dream is alive and well in this film, and it goes to show us college students that (as cliché as it may be) all the work we are doing right now sucks, but it will all be worth it in the end.