Shortly after the release of Dogville in 2003, Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier responded to American critics who accused him of offending a country he never visited, by saying that 60 percent of everything he experienced in his life was American; which makes him partly American, he said.
I tend to agree. My generation is no different from Mr. Von Trier. From chain-restaurants, to fashion, to books, we are inundated with American cultural output wherever we go.
The ideals and expectations etched in our psyche from childhood are rooted in American culture, whether it’s Disney movies, sitcoms or big budget Hollywood flicks. With the changing socio-economic make up of Egypt, the growing consumerism cannot be overlooked.
But while materialism is the core factor influencing people’s ambitions, it has put them in an endless cycle of uncertainty, where they strive to define their personal definition of happiness.
For Chris Gardner, the protagonist of the latest Will Smith movie The Pursuit of Happyness, the concept of happiness is outlined by a Darwinian American society that defines happiness as the individual’s ability to survive and ultimately lead a secure, sumptuous life.
Happyness is inspired by the true story of a medical supply salesman (Smith), struggling to build a life for his little son amid the sluggish Regan-economy of the early 80s.
Gardner bumps into a stock broker who introduces him to his bosses. With clear wit, intelligence and sincerity, he wins an internship in a firm where one out of the twenty other interns will have a shot at snatching a fulltime position.
When his wife abandons him, Gardner struggles to make ends meet. He is jailed and finds himself homeless during the six-month period of his training. At one point he is forced to take refuge in a subway toilet.
Happyness is, essentially, a rags-to-riches tale about a man defying all odds to reach his goal. Gardner embodies the American Dream; the idea that any man can accomplish his dream if he worked hard enough without waiting for instant gratification.
Smith delivers a delicate, natural and stirring performance that marks a major departure from his bombastic, over-the-top signature blockbuster roles. His portrayal of a single, loving dad trying to build a life for his kid is heartrending.
The bathroom scene, where Smith s tears gently falls down while sleeping on the floor with his son on his lap is tear-jerking. It’s astonishing how the former rapper handles Gardner’s moments of triumph with tremendous subtlety and sensitivity. In fact, “Happyness rests squarely on Smith s brilliant performance, arguably the best in his career to date.
Underlying Gardner’s plight and his tender relationship with his son, lies a burning desire to become rich and famous, to own a house in the suburbs and to have the best football seats. It s a goal that Italian director Gabriele Muccino downplays, yet fails to convince us of.
Hollywood movies have always been the biggest purveyors of the American dream and kids are easily influenced by the subliminal messages in such films.
Eight or ten years ago, a film like Happyness would have been a source of utter delight.
But not long ago, I stumbled upon the America of Scorsese, Altman, Coppola and Lynch. The standard American dream you watch in the run-of-the-mill Hollywood film has no presence in these directors’ works, where happiness is an elusive mirage.
From Socrates and the Greek philosophers to Kierkegaard, the existentialists and post-modernists, people have been searching for the one true meaning of happiness. Some have been lucky to attain it, some are still attempting to do so, and others might never come close to experiencing it. Nothing is definite in life and the simplistic version of the happiness, American-style, is becoming harder and harder to believe.
Happyness clearly intends to inspire those who no longer find comfort in an American reality that is purely fictional.
Yet it fails to achieve that goal. What is left in the end is a bitter aftertaste of a film that cheats you with a fake, shallow, disposable answer to life s biggest question. We all believed in these ideals before, but the new generation is now coming up with its own interpretation of the American dream. And it’s a far cry from the illusion this film tries to sell us.
