History Film / ThePursuitOfHappyness

* MeanBoss: Downplayed and lampshaded with Alan Frakesh, the primary trainer for the interns, who treats Chris rather like his personal servant, constantly singling him out for coffee runs and various other menial tasks. After pulling off so many tasks altogether at the office, Chris felt underrated as well as unappreciated by his office manager. Sending Chris to fetch coffee or doughnuts or even asking to park the car at crucial moments testify to this claim. But Chris didn’t wince.

* MeanBoss: Downplayed and lampshaded with Alan Frakesh, the primary trainer for the interns, treats Chris rather like his personal servant, constantly singling him out for coffee runs and various other menial tasks. After pulling off so many tasks altogether at the office, Chris felt underrated as well as unappreciated by his office manager. Sending Chris to fetch coffee or doughnuts or even asking to park the car at crucial moments testify to this claim. But Chris didn’t wince.

* MeanBoss: Downplayed and averted with Alan Frakesh, the primary trainer for the interns, treats Chris rather like his personal servant, constantly singling him out for coffee runs and various other menial tasks. After pulling off so many tasks altogether at the office, Chris felt underrated as well as unappreciated by his office manager. Sending Chris to fetch coffee or doughnuts or even asking to park the car at crucial moments testify to this claim. But Chris didn’t wince.

* PetTheDog: Even though Linda might not be the nicest nor loviest person ever, and while she does not seem to like Chris that much, anymore than what she used to, she does understand he's a good father and trusts him to look after Christopher while she's gone.

* PetTheDog: Even though Linda might not be the nicest nor loviest person ever, and while she does not seem to like Chris that much anymore than she used to, she does understand he's a good father and trusts him to look after Christopher while she's gone.

* PetTheDog: Even though Linda might not be the nicest nor loviest person ever, and while she doesn't seem to like Chris that much anymore than she used to, she does understand he's a good father and trusts him to look after Christopher while she's gone.

* PetTheDog: Even though Linda may not be the nicest nor loviest person ever, and while she doesn't seem to like Chris that much anymore than she used to, she does understand he's a good father and trusts him to look after Christopher while she's gone.

Gardner invests the family savings in a new type of bone density scanner which is more expensive but with clearer imaging. This investment ultimately causes troubles between himself and his wife, causing her to leave him with their young son, Christopher (played by Smith's real life son, [[Creator/JadenSmith Jaden]]). Gardner then gets a 6-month unpaid internship at Dean Witter, a brokerage firm.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Chris and Christopher have the same first name. To distinguish between the two, Chris is only ever referred to as Chris, and Christopher is only ever referred to as Christopher.

* ChekhovsSkill: Chris is shown nearly finishing a Rubik's Cube. When in the cab with Jay Twistle trying to do one, Chris manages to complete it which impress Jay enough to finally get a spot in the Dean Witter internship program.

[[quoteright:286:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ThePursuitOfHappyness_6352.jpg]]

* AdultFear: ''The entire film''. All of Chris' pursuits are done with the main goal of giving his son a good life. That includes immersing him in a fantasy involving dinosaurs and caves when they're forced to sleep in a metro bathroom.

* ShoutOut: Dan Castellaneta's character Alan Frakesh asks for a donut, which may be [[ActorAllusion an allusion]] to his [[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerJaySimpson most famous role]].

* RealityEnsues: Chris spends a portion of the movie getting close to a potential client who winds up befriending him and taking him to a 49ers game and sharing a VIP box with Chris and his son. Then said client drops the bomb: he has no intention of letting Chris manage his portfolio, citing the fact Chris is an intern with very little professional experience.

* BlatantLies: Chris does this twice, first to share a cab ride with Jay Twistle about the broker internship and later to Walter Ribbon saying they were "in the neighborhood seeing a friend" trying to win him as a client, after missing their initial appointment.
* BrilliantButLazy: Deconstructed. Chris is shown to be quite smart and quite a hard worker, but he made a big mistake investing in a mediocre medical device that he had to store and sell himself. It didn't matter how hard he worked, he was stuck with thousands of dollars worth of equipment that he HAD to sell and couldn't, making it seem like he couldn't hold down a job. It wasn't until he sold off the last one that he was able to lock down the internship and get a job as a broker.
* BrokenAesop: Halfway through, Chris makes quite a good observation that you can only pursue happiness, and expecting to actually ''have'' it for more than a brief moment at a time is an illusion. The film ends with a HappyEnding implying everything will be alright from now on.

** Cecil Williams, the pastor of the church that sheltered Chris and his son, appears giving a sermon.

* BlantantLies: Chris does this twice, first to share a cab ride with Jay Twistle about the broker internship and later to Walter Ribbon saying they were "in the neighborhood seeing a friend", after missing their initial appointment.

* BrilliantButLazy: Deconstructed, Chris is shown to be quite smart and quite a hard worker, but he made a big mistake investing in a mediocre medical device that he had to store and sell himself. It didn't matter how hard he worked, he was stuck with thousands of dollars worth of equipment that he HAD to sell and couldn't, making it seem like he couldn't hold down a job. It wasn't until he sold off the last one that he was able to lock down the internship and get a job as a broker.

* OscarBait: The film is an emotional biographical film about Chris Gardner, focusing on a man's dedication to achieve the much-sought goal of being a broker while also keeping him and his son off the streets. Chris himself is played by Creator/WillSmith.

* {{Determinator}}: Chris. He takes his pursuit in becoming a broker seriously from the beginning, but once his wife leaves and he's left with all of twenty-one dollars in his bank account, he spends just about ''every waking moment'' doing whatever it takes to make the dream happen. This includes not drinking water during work so he doesn't have to go to the bathroom and not hanging up the phone between calls to get an extra eight minutes a day.

* MissingMom: Linda decides to leave and goes to New York. She doesn't return later in the film.

* ShoutOut: Dan Castellaneta's character Alan Frakesh asks for a donut in one of the office scenes, which may be an allusion to his [[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerJaySimpson most famous role]].

* HeroesActVillainsHinder: The film doesn't have an antagonist and focuses mainly on Chris's financial struggles just to live day-by-day with his son. That said, some of Chris's hurtles come from other people, such as a street busker stealing one of his machines, a friend who refuses to pay back a debt, a boss giving him the task of parking his car while Chris is in a rush, etc.

* TraumaCongaLine: The film acts as such for Chris Gardner. He starts with a dead-end job selling overpriced medical equipment and a wife who practically despises him. His son doesn't learn much because of the incompetence of the cheap daycare center. Then his equipment gets stolen – twice – once by a busking hippie girl, then by a mentally-unstable hobo who thinks he got himself a time machine. (It doesn't help that the machine isn't working when Chris gets it back from the hobo.) His wife leaves him, the cops bust him while painting his house for nonpayment of parking tickets, forcing him to attend his job interview in a dumpy jacket and tank top stained with white paint, he and Christopher Jr. are rendered homeless twice over when they can't pay the rent, and in between those events, he earns the ire of a cab driver (because he was too broke to pay the fare) and a motorist (who struck him while he was chasing the "time machine"-stealing hobo). Also, you've got Wayne turning out to be a fair-weather friend, and Chris losing his car at some point in the movie. [[spoiler:In the end, however, everything works out for Chris and his son.]]

* HateSink: The film has NoAntagonist, apart from quite possibly the enormous struggle that Chris has to go through over the course of the film in order to give Christopher a good life. So we have Linda, Chris's {{Jerkass}} wife [[ItsAllAboutMe who only seems to think about herself]], offers no support to Chris when he needs it, and [[TakingTheKids threatens to leave and take Christopher with her]]. Understandably, when Chris finds her after that one, he is furious with her and tells her to "get the fuck out of here". Then she leaves for New York, but agrees to leave Christopher with Chris, which is possibly the only decent thing we see her do.