YMMV / The Pursuit of Happyness

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Gardner a righteous, determined and selfless father, or is he a selfish, childish man who is severely out of touch with reality?
• Funny Moments: Chris comes into his first job interview without a proper shirt. The interviewer acts normally, but at the end, he asks Chris what he would say if he hired a man who came in without a shirt. Chris responds, "Well, he must have had some really nice pants!" The interviewer finds this hilarious, too.
• Glurge: A man, who is presented as moral, sees happiness in making money as a stock broker, studies at it with a high potential chance of failure for no money, and is willing to sacrifice his own son's well-being in order to do so, all to participate in a 6-months unpaid internship. He does eventually make it big in the end.
• Tear Jerker: Be prepared for the overwhelming urge to call your Daddy and tell him how much you love him.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sure Linda is already alienated and everything, and while she's antagonistic and hot-tempered towards Chris throughout most of the film, some viewers do understand what it feels like to suffer from financial debt. They can feel sorry for Linda based on how's she's taking the stress, while smitten with chagrin and misery.
• The Woobie:
  • The sheer struggle Chris has to endure over the course of the film^note OK, some of it was his own fault through recklessly investing his life savings in the bone density scanners is enough to make anyone feel sorry for him, which is made much worse when he and his son Christopher are left homeless and destitute, and Chris hides this as much as possible not just from the people at Dean Witter, but also from Christopher. Not helped by a shit wife who up and leaves him and her son because "she can't take it anymore", and a selfish friend who refuses to pay a debt that Chris, who's already living on the streets, needs. The dude does not have it well.
  • Christopher too, for many of the same reasons as his father. He even asks Chris at one point if Linda left because of him, which is enough to make anyone want to hug him. And then there's the scene where he loses his Captain America action figure and Chris shouts at him because they need to get to the homeless shelter.

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