'Pursuit of Happyness'

In this photo provided by Columbia Pictures, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (left) and Will Smith star in " The Pursuit of Happyness." (AP Photo)

There is never any doubt that Will Smith's Chris Gardner will muddle through in "The Pursuit of Happyness," that he'll get a job, make some money, find a home and achieve the elusive, intentionally misspelled state of the film's title.

After all, this is "inspired by a true story," and after all, this is Will Smith. They don't make movies about homeless guys who remain homeless by the time the closing credits roll _ and if they do, they certainly don't release them at Christmas.

It's all predictable stuff. Yet Smith does make you root for him, because beneath that bad mustache and cheap suit he's actually acting and not just playing the clown, something he hasn't done in truly convincing fashion since 1993's "Six Degrees of Separation." ("The Legend of Bagger Vance" was maudlin dreck and doesn't count.)

The scenes in which he runs around San Francisco, seeking comfort and shelter for himself and his young son, have a convincing familiarity _ probably because that really is Smith's son, 7-year-old Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, playing the part. (He's a charming, confident scene-stealer. Must be in the DNA.) And the elder Smith brings surprising depth and subtlety to a performance that easily could have been melodramatic.

At its core "The Pursuit of Happyness" is a good story _ one that's literally rags to riches, and didn't need the many tweaks and embellishments that Italian director Gabriele Muccino and writer Steven Conrad have added. The night Chris and his son spend on the bathroom floor of a Bay Area Rapid Transit station, because they have nowhere else to go, is especially wrenching _ and it happened, as shown in a ''20/20'' segment about Gardner that provided the spark for this film.

Chris' wife and 5-year-old Christopher's mother, played by a harried Thandie Newton, is a fabrication, a composite of several people (and it's hard to believe that she's so unhappy that she'd just pick up and go and never contact either of them again). The Rubik's Cube Chris solves easily (this being 1981) is a total contrivance _ a device that was made up to render visually the quickness with which his mind functions.

Solving it, though, impresses a honcho at Dean Witter, where Chris is competing for an unpaid internship at the start of the go-go '80s. He'd been selling bulky, overpriced bone-scanning machines, without much success, and realizes that working as a stockbroker might be a better use of his gift for mathematic.

But everything goes wrong each step of the way. He's late for a meeting, his car gets towed, his wife leaves. He gets robbed, arrested and booted from his apartment. How much bad luck can one guy have?

Nevertheless, he never loses it _ and there are many moments in which ordinary mortals would and should. No matter where he and Christopher have spent the previous night, he shows up at the office on time every day and manages to keep up in his class, where he's competing with 19 other ambitious, aspiring stock brokers, all of them white.

That's something else he endures with unflagging grace: the not-so-subtle racism that pervades his prospective field. Chris is the only one asked by his superiors to fetch coffee and doughnuts, to park someone's car.

This guy is seriously too good to be true - even as the central figure in a (mostly) true story.

"The Pursuit of Happyness,"a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for some language. Running time: 116 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G _ General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG _ Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 _ Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R _ Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 _ No one under 17 admitted.