A movie can be so moving, so powerful—
"When Happiness Knocks"
This moving lies in Chris Garner, played by Will Smith, a bitter man who is constantly submerged in the sea of people, and his hardships and pains seem to be innate, and his struggles and struggles are sad and encouraging.
So, when we watch this film, we always think that he can live better, and hope that he and his son can live with dignity.
So, when we see him in the film finally crying for success, it's hard to remain indifferent. Like Chris in the film, we have been defeated countless times, and countless times we have stood up and continued to run.
Today, I want to talk to you about this film that is probably one of the most brushed films I have ever brushed.
The story's prototype, Chris Garner, is a legendary figure in the United States, who was homeless in the 1980s, but eventually struggled to become a successful stockbroker, followed by many titles such as entrepreneur, investor, orator and philanthropist.
If ghana has the most glorious moments of his life, it is certainly a time to be on the oscar red carpet with Will Smith in 2007.
In the ending credits of "When Happiness Knocks" released in 2006, Garner's name appeared in the protagonist character archetype and producer column, respectively.
In 2002, after an interview with ABC's famous brand column 20/20, Garner realized that Hollywood might need his story. In the engagement with Hollywood, a story based on Ghana's homeless struggles gradually takes shape, but there are some things that Make Ghana feel a little inappropriate, such as the possibility that Will Smith may play him.
Garner felt that Smith's previous appearances were mostly action movies, and he was not actually the most perfect person to play him, until he heard her daughter say, "If Smith can play Ali well, then he can definitely play you well!" That's what reassures me.
"When Happiness Knocks" is one of the highest-grossing films of Will Smith's acting career, and it is almost the most acclaimed film of his audience, and it also earned him his second Oscar nomination.
In "When Happiness Knocks", people see an unprecedented Will Smith, an ordinary person who is not fashionable, not glamorous, not muscley, not playful, and a low-level father who is troubled by a failed life but who is constantly self-reliant.
Rolling Stone magazine praised Smith this way: "It's a character that requires air, intelligence, charm, humor, and soul, and Smith has done it." ”
Richard Robbe, one of the most famous film critic duo of the time, "Ebert & Robbe," said: "A person like me who likes to be cynical has to admit that I was completely conquered by the story that Smith interpreted with his sincere and deeply moving performance." ”
It can be said that almost the entire film Chris Garner is constantly knocked down by life - career, marriage, landlord, police and even friends, all of which make him stuck again and again. In the vision of "When Happiness Knocks", the two actions of "down" and "up" summarize Chris Garner's life to a certain extent.
Like what:
When Chris Garner was talking to the owner of a luxury car on the side of the road, he found that the stockbroker did not need a degree, so he had the idea of entering the stock company. He was very envious of these people who "upward" entered the stock company;
In the next shot, we see a person who looks up and wants to "go up";
Garner goes after the street singer who takes away medical equipment, and this passage is full of action movie-like danger;
Another "downward" run in the film, but it is Ghana's turn to be chased by someone else - a taxi driver who wants to get money. This section is longer and more thrilling than when Ghana chased the female singer;
Constantly running and tired of running, Chris Garner in the film is almost a running man, but his two downward runs are accompanied by the "knockdown" of life on him - once by a street singer who takes away the medical equipment he is painstakingly selling and means a week's living expenses, and the other is when he rushes into the subway station to escape the taxi fare.
Both "downwards" made his life bleaker, more embarrassing, and visually disturbing. In contrast, after Deciding to give up the job of a stockbroker, Chris Garner repeatedly describes his "up" state, but at the same time shows us how difficult it is to "go up".
Ghana, who had a hard time getting an internship in a stock company, although Ghana was still in trouble at this time, he had begun to "move up" on the screen;
People run to Ghana, but the difficulty of the internship period is still beyond his imagination;
The difficulty of the "upward" road makes the father and son jump all the way;
Throughout the film, we can appreciate that Chris Garner is a hard-working person, but what is the reason why he failed so much?
Ostensibly, it was Ghana that sold "portable bone density scanners" that were unpopular, misestimating the commercial prospects of the expensive medical device and blindly investing in the family facing an economic crisis.
Garner's first monologue in the film, "When I first met my father, I was 28 years old," and when he filled out his resume at a stock company, he laughed at himself that "under 'high school,' there are three lines to fill in other levels of education, which is simply superfluous to me.", and a few strokes have made the image of a black youth born into a single-parent family with limited education jump on the screen.
Origin, education, and background in the color of his skin (which is almost never mentioned in the film), and of course, investment failures have plunged Chris Garner into a "downward" circle of life, in which he tried his best to break through, but the harder he struggled, the more it did not help, until he bet his future on a six-month-long internship period of unpaid stockbrokers, but such a future is full of unknowns and turbulence.
So, on the screen, we can often see the siege of Chris Garner by all aspects of "reality", sometimes a surging crowd, sometimes a repressive environment, and more often, the embarrassment of money.
For example, some shots in the film:
Ghana can only take crowded buses every day to sell medical equipment;
Garner sends her son to kindergarten, and by chance discovers that the kindergarten just lets the children watch TV every day. Here it is implied that the future of the son is also in danger;
Since cheques owed for traffic fines need to be confirmed, Ghana was required to stay overnight at the police station;
Desperate, Ghana asks a friend for the $14 he owes, but the other side turns him away;
Kicked out of the hotel, Garner continues to go to his friends to ask for money, but none of them are home;
Father and son spent the night in the cramped toilet of the subway station. This is the lowest point of life in Ghana;
Garner finally gets a job offer, and at this point he blends into the crowd he had previously envied;
At the end of the film, the father and son usher in a happy life in the few visually stretched shots in the film. The passerby on the left is a cameo by Chris Garner himself.
In the film, a conversation between Chris Garner and his son on the basketball court, both in terms of graphics and lines, epitomizes one of the film's themes: dreams. Or, as the title suggests: the pursuit of happiness.
When the Ghanaian father and son lived in the hotel and continued to sell medical equipment on Saturday, they played basketball for a while. When Garner found out that his son wanted to be a professional player, he rudely dispelled his thoughts, and the loss on his son's face made him unbearable, so he said to his son: "Don't let others tell you that you can't, even I can't do it." If you have a dream, defend it. ”
For the soon-to-be-displaced Ghanaian father and son, the "dream" is unrealistic, and the film has repeatedly metaphorically metaphorized the reality and spiritual dilemma of the father and son's "dreams being bound" through the forced environment, including closed medical equipment and even plastic bags for basketballs.
The repeated appearance of the national flag strengthens the sense of symbolism of "dream", and even the son's toy can be seen as a reflection of the visual motif of "dream".
Ghana, who went to the stock company for an interview, looked up and saw the national flag;
When the girlfriend left herself and her son, Garner looked at her son worriedly. The poster on the wall is the idol of the son: basketball superstar "Magician" Johnson;
At the police station, Garner pleaded with his girlfriend to take care of his son overnight, while he worried about whether the second round of interviews the next day would fail. The vague flag in the background seems to indicate that he is getting farther and farther away from his dream;
When Garner asked his son to dispel his basketball dreams, his son had to pack up basketballs — a dream that was packed;
Father and son, the dream carried in their hands;
Father and son walked through the rich area. Here the view is wide and sunny, close to the father and son, but in fact it is very far away;
After starting an internship at a stock company, Garner is like the picture of him running towards happiness and dreams;
The son asks Garner to kiss his "hero";
To be fair, in the films with high reputation among movie fans in the past decade, "When Happiness Knocks" is not complicated and profound in both form and content. In essence, it is an unpretentious drama, but in terms of visual expression, the film is still full of exquisite "careful thinking".
Rolling Stone once commented on this movie —
"This is the story of a man who is knocked down again and again by life but refuses to sink."
Whenever you stand on the verge of giving up on your dreams, hopefully you can think of this movie too.