First Post - The Pursuit of Sassyness

Hi All,
My friend Catherine suggested I write my thoughts on popular entertainment in a blog and since I tend to follow up instantly on powerful suggestions, I hopped on board. My first set of insights will be on the new-to-DVD "The Pursuit of Happyness".

Personally, I wouldn't watch it if I were you; it's too sad and stressful for words. While the previews look like the opposite of that, there is literally one joke - it's in the previews and the rest is just as sad as sad can be. He just falls further and further, and just when it looks like he might make it, the movie ends. Yes, it's a success story, but unless you watched Oprah or Ellen and saw the guy interviewed, you don't actually hear about ANY of that. They totally promoted the movie to make it look all heart-warming, but you watch him fall and fall...he loses his wife, his job, his house, his spot in the homeless shelter, his money, his pride, etc. And then for about 2 seconds at the end he gives a very short speech about how he's so happy that things might work out. For this movie, "things might work out" constitutes the happy ending. I will say that Will Smith deserved his Oscar nod, and his kid is terrific....but he runs everywhere - to work, from work, to the homeless shelter, to pick up his kid, everywhere. It gets exhausting just watching it. Although if you know the real story, they work out really well, they just didn't put ANY Of that in the movie. In the VERY last shot, you see Will and his son walking down a hill in San Fran and a well-dressed guy walks across the screen behind them....that's the real guy today. It's very draining and energy sapping...thus, I strongly recommend against it. There's just no relief from the stress. Like in "Cold Mountain", there are moment of levity to keep the sadness away; and, though it ends very sadly, you still feel like the good moments outweigh the bad. Sadly this is not the case in a movie with happyness in its title.

Well, that's a concise bit of our conversation about it that prompted the suggestion for a blog. I have other things I'll add in a bit.