We signed up for a free trial of Blockbuster online. Husband dear's longstanding feud with BB seems to have passed, mainly because in our town we can rent from Blockbuster or a tanning salon.

So far, I'm liking it. We go online and rent movies, put them in our queue - so handy for NOT forgetting the name of that movie we really want to see - and then, we can return them to the local brick and mortar building and get more right away! We're still in a free trial, so I'm not officially recommending it yet. There does seem to be an unreasonable bias by the online folks, shipping out the newest movies first. I've yet to get my Thin Man movies, which were the first things I selected! To be fair, most people probably want to watch the newest and flashiest. I'm just nerdy in that I put Auntie Mame in line before Stranger than Fiction.

So. We got The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith - and it was fantastic! It's a true story about a man doing whatever he can to make a better life for his son - even though he ends up homeless at points in the meantime. It's inspirational without saccharine sweetness.

Another thing that struck me, is how much a wife's attitude and faith in her husband really does matter to a man, which is something rarely heard in our society right now.

I found myself contrasting it with last year's Fun with Dick and Jane. Dick and Jane stick with each other, through thick and thin - and attempted larceny (not a family film. You've been warned). It wasn't Jim Carrey's best movie, but I liked the message that families stick together. Although I'm still wondering why they didn't fire the nanny after Mom and Dad both lost their jobs and became stay-at-home parents.

Throughout the film, there is an optimism - he can, and will make life better, no matter what. He also emphasizes the value of education to his son over and over, and there are several scenes of him reading to his boy. The title, spelled with a "Y", comes from a scene where he protests a graffiti mural outside his boy's daycare - the mural's fine, but he's appalled it's misspelled.

There are a couple of bad words, but no sex, nudity, or gratuitous violence. The extra commentary with the real Chris Gardner, who the story is based on, is well worth a viewing too.
Interesting note - Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, and his son, Jaden Smith, plays his boy in the movie. No wonder they have such a comfortable presence together onscreen!

Labels: Rants and Raves