10 Awesome Modern Film Performances You Totally Didn’t See Coming

7. Will Smith €“ The Pursuit of Happyness (1998)

Will Smith is fairly inoffensive. He€™s one of those €˜toe-the-line€™ kind of actors, who€™s never so bad that I have to resist the urge to throw my drink at the screen, but never so good that I have to resist the urge to dry-hump it either. When you sit down to A €˜Mr. I-Make-This-Look-Good€™ vehicle, you can usually tell pretty much exactly what you€™re going to get. So when I sat down to Pursuit of Happyness, I was fairly ambivalent toward the outcome. However, pretty soon in, I could tell that this was a special one for Smith; that he really believed in what he was performing. Sure, you can attribute that to a solid script by Steve Conrad; or quietly confident direction from Gabriele Muccino; but in all honesty, one of things that sold the film€™s questionable theme of €˜being rich solves all your problems€™ was Will Smith€™s unexpectedly moving turns as the down-on-his-luck Chris Gardener. Smith€™s performance his so good here in fact, particularly his on-screen chemistry with his real-life son Jaden Smith, that I€™m actually convinced that without him, the whole €˜cash = happiness€™ moral would have been much more difficult to swallow. So well done Will Smith for making me, a hopelessly far-gone cynic, actually buy the tat that you were selling.
 
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Stuart believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, but still he insists on using a keyboard.