Pursuit of HappYness

I WANT to see the movie, but I'm going to have to get a girlfriend to go, because I know my husband won't go.

A little tidbit - the acting you see out of Will Smith in this movie is more than acting...that is his REAL son in the movie, not a child actor.

Excellent movie choice--I went this weekend. It was nice to see some real San Franciscans, like the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church in it. Cecil Williams has done more for the poor and homeless of SF than anyone else I can think of.
Great movie--but some scenes were in Oakland!!!!!! (I'm just picky, cuz this is my neck of the woods, lol!!) Loved the scenes on BART as well.
Only bad thing about the flick was Will Smith's wife. Was she a bitc** or what??

Yhanks for givinh those of us not familar with SF information about the area and that it was representated well. YEs she was a total you know what but I sure did cry in the last office scene

i thank you for good movies like Oprah tell me good books to read. we start debt movie club here, watch movies while i pay my bills.

But muffman, you said you don't pay your bills. I do like your "Movie Club" idea.

Sue, did you see the man Will Smith was portraying on Oprah? This was his life. They also brought the man's son on stage. He said he didn't remember much about that part of his life except moving a lot. The man also told about how his biological father left him. His mother remarried. He said he hated going to relatives for holidays because everybdoy always drank too much and then got into fights. One holiday (was it Thanksgiving?) he decided not to go with them. He was about 15 or 16. He decided to go out with his girlfriend instead. He was taking a bath, getting ready for it, when his stepfather bashed the bathroom door in and held a shotgun, ordering him out of the house, having already thrown his mother out. He was put into the street butt ****. He said he never forgot that. He said when he had his own son, they might not know where they were going to sleep that night or where their next meal was coming from but he vowed he and his son would see each other every day, and they did.

Thanks, Ashley, for bringing up this movie. I haven't seen it yet, but it seems like it would be an inspiration for all of us.

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]

i help my wife pay her bills, she need good credit to make up for my bad. we pay equally, i help her with morgage and she help pay for my bankrupt lawyer. then we watch movies. i tell her we can go see pursuit of happyness tomorrow, she tell me to invite my attorney he might like it too. i will, im thinkg about inviting paday stores to come watch movie too. will be big happy debtfree family.

okay just for the record I am not at home and the keyboard I am using is one of those split keyboards and my one finger typing doesn't work well,,,UGH. I did love this movie and I recommend it to everyone

Movies are good. They help to ease the burden of debt stress.

I love San Francisco but never lived there. I also know the story of Chris Gardner very well. I lived his story. I was a single mother struggling to make ends meet. I had good job skills but not a good job. I took on a second job. My neighbors didn't like that I worked two jobs but I was trying to keep from being homeless and pay the bills off. In the end, my 3 children and I became homeless anyway in 1994. The next two years of my life were pure hell. The highlight of that experience was was getting to go to eat under the viaduct on Sundays because a ministry came and fed us pancakes, bacon, sausage and real coffee. Brian Mitchell wasn't so crazy as to wear a white robe and kidnap little girls by the name of Elizabeth at that time, but he was crazy enough to stalk me. Illegals from Mexico hid drugs in the hubs of my car. The homeless shelter took my children on a weekend campout, didn't supervise them and my daughter ended up with a fractured skull. When we made it to transitional housing, they put us in the worst part of the city. It was common for us to hit the floor when the drive-by shooters drove past our house. They weren't shooting at us specifically, they were just shooting in random. My mother came down with terminal cancer and died and I couldn't even attend the funeral. And, there was an attempted kidnap of my daughter. Somehow we made it out and we rejoined the rest of the Salmon swimming upstream in that march we call life. And here I am today, finally learning the lesson I should have learned 10 years ago. It wasn't a poor job or neighbors that didn't like me that caused me to become homeless. ... It was my lack of education on how to handle money and make it work for me. This year was my wakeup call. I am getting out of the cycle of debt because this is the legacy I will leave my kids. Knowledge of how to do it better -- do it the right way. Anyone want to join me?