'The Pursuit of Happiness' by Meg Sugden

This true story follows part of Chris Gardner's life, a man who lives in America and is trying to struggle with getting a job, keeping his house and looking after his family all at the same time. We see him go through the most difficult times in his life and all this happens within about 2 years, which is an incredible ordeal to go through. It is heartbreaking to watch as we see him fail at so many hurdles before eventually picking up on everything and gaining a life for himself and son, who is only about 5 at the time.

The story begins with Chris taking his son Christopher to day care, as both him and his wife work long and tiring shifts at different times so they cannot look after him properly. At the school we get our first indication that he wants a better life as we see him arguing with a cleaner about the graffiti of which happiness is spelt incorrectly and does not contain a 'y'. This already starts to give some indication as to what he wants most in life and he is annoyed that someone could misspell something so important. We then see what he does for a living, selling bone density scanners, but this has just caused tension with his wife as he hasn't sold any in months, meaning that they do see eye to eye any more. So, because they they can't pay the rent, afford food and don't get along, things are starting to become difficult.

'It's part of my life I like to call, being stupid.'

A few days on we see him going for a job interview for an internship at a stock brokers, and as he has his scanner with him he decides to leave it with a lady singing on the street, once he's in his interview however he cuts it short as he sees the lady run away with it out the window, so takes the application form and runs after her. The next day we do see him find the lady and take back his scanner, which we find happiness in as he can then go onto selling it, but this again proves tension with his wife as he wasn't meant to come back with any scanners, instead he comes back with two. We then see the disappointment when the only thing his son receives for his birthday is a basketball, and we see the pain as they want to provide better for their son but they know they can't.

In an attempt to best his opportunities to get the internship he finds Jay Twizzle, a stock broker who can guarantee him the job and attempts to wow him by completing a Rubix Cube, something only one man has managed to do yet, as it has only just come out. He's impressed, and gets out of the taxi that they in, without paying and Chris realises he has no money to pay for it; so makes a run for it down to the tube station, only to get the scanner stuck in the tube door and once again loosing another one. By this point he is late home to get Christopher, forcing his wife to miss her shift at work, and loose it, leaving Chris but later on manages to gain custody of his son. 

The fight for survival then continues as we see him land the internship, after a rocky night being arrested for not paying for his parking tickets and despite the state he arrived in for the interview, and things start to look up, as long as they can sell the remaining scanners as he will not get paid for 6 months. Things start to look up for him as we see him coping with his job, and even managing to get the scanner back again, even though it was broken it was still a start. Until the day when he doesn't pay his council tax and they take everything that he has forcing them to live on the streets.

This leads on to us seeing him coping with looking after his 5 year old son at the same time as trying to keep everything together as they stay inside a public loo for the night. The heart wrenching scene in which we see him cry as he doesn't know what is about to happen with his life anymore becomes difficult to watch as we know that this actually happened to someone real, and actually happens to a lot of people of America on a daily basis. The anger and hurt inside of him continues as they eventually get a place in a homeless shelter, providing that they get there on time every day, but he is still trying to manage the internship at the same time so that he can get the job. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

'This little part of my life is called happiness.'

Chris manages to fix the scanner and sell it for about 200 dollars, meaning that they can stay in a hotel for the night and things start to look up even more. Especially as he gets his job. The ending of this film is beautiful and joyful and above anything else brings gladness to everyone watching as we now know that he can live the rest of his life in happiness. 

'After beginning his career at Dean Witter, Chris Gardner went on to found the investment firm Gardner Rich in 1987. 

In 2007 Chris Gardner sol a minority stake in his brokerage firm in a multimillion dollar deal.'