Will Smith as Chris Gardner
Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner, Jr.
Thandiwe Newton as Linda Gardner
Brian Howe as Jay Twistle
Dan Castellaneta as Alan
Frakesh
James Karen as Martin
Frohm
Kurt Fuller as Walter
Ribbon
Plot
summary:
The opening
sequence of the movie takes viewers to San Francisco in 1981 AD where a man
named Chris Gardner is shown spending all his savings to buy portable bone
density machines. But these machines do not work well in the market and it
becomes very difficult for him to sell those machines. Gradually, his financial
condition keeps on degrading. Chris lives in a rented house with his wife Linda
and son Christopher. They have to bear so much of the expenditure such as Christopher’s
school fees and the house rent. Now the economic burden has come to his
wife’s head and as a result, they start having fights with each other. They
start struggling financially so much. In order to run the house smoothly, Chris
has to sell at least four scanners but he can hardly sell one scanner.
One day when
Chris is talking to his client on the phone, a dashing car stops nearby him. Chris
keeps on looking at the car and can’t help himself from asking the owner. He
asks him what he does and how he does it. The man points towards a building and
replies that he is a share broker. When Chris looks at anyone coming out of
that building, he realizes that everyone is coming out happily. He decides to
start working as a share broker. He tells his wife that he is no more going to
do business with the scanners. His wife humiliates him by telling him that no one
was going to buy them anyway. He adds that he will work as a share broker. His
wife insults him saying why he won’t be an astronaut. She tells this because
she has no faith in him. Chris feels bad about everything she told. Finally, his
wife decides that she will no longer live with him. She takes her son and
leaves the place. Chris becomes angry and tells her that she can leave if she
wants but she has to give his son back to her. Chris loves his son very much
but he also knows that he can’t keep his son legally because he has to stay with
his mother. But fortunately, Linda gets a job somewhere in Europe and hence she
has to leave the place and as a result, Chris gets to keep his son.
One day the
house owner comes to him and informs him that he has not paid the rent for months
and since he has to paint the house, he wants his house empty. Chris asks for a few more days so that he can earn some money. The owner accepts Chris’s request
asking him to paint the whole house if he wants to stay there for one more week. Chris has applied for
the job in the share market and tomorrow is his interview. While he was painting
his house, he gets caught by the police because he has not paid the parking rent
for a long time. They take him to the police station. He asks him to let him go but
they don’t do so because they too have some rules. Chris gets out of jail
the next day and goes straight to the share office running. He doesn’t even
have a shirt on but an old jacket with dabs of paint all over his face and
his clothes. He gets called in for the interview but at first, he doesn’t have the courage to get in. but finally with full courage, he goes to the interview
room. The interviewers get confused looking at him and how he can be this
ignorant on such an important day. Instead of making excuses, he tells everything
that happened yesterday. They ask for his qualifications but that too
doesn’t impress them well. Chris tells the jury that he has the capability to
seek the answer anyhow if someone questions him. One of the judges asks him if someone comes to give an interview without outing his shirt and he
gives him the job too, what the reason may be behind this. Chris tells him that
he probably has worn a very good pair of pants. The answer leaves the jury
impressed. Hence he gets selected for the job. But this job is actually an
internship given to 20 people for six months and at the end of the session only
one of them will get the job. This leaves Chris a bit confused. So he tells one
of the jury that he will inform him whether or not he will come to work. That
man from the jury tells him that he has time till tomorrow morning to decide.
He decides that he will work for the office.
Chris has
sold some scanners and has a balance that will be enough for six months to
live. He shifts to another house. But one day when he is returning from the
office, he receives a letter from the government stating that since he has not
paid the taxes the government has seized all his money. This leaves him
speechless. Now he doesn’t have money to pay for the rent too. One day after
returning from the office with his son he sees that the house owner has kept
all his items out of the house. Now he is homeless too. He goes to one of his
friend’s house to ask for the money he lent but his friend doesn’t open the door at
all. Chris now has his belongings and his son but no idea where to go. So he
goes to a metro station but has no idea where to go. He gets inside a washroom
and his son falls asleep there. He decides to spend his night there only. He
feels the lowest point of his life then and there. The next day he goes to a church
to ask for the shelter but he is told that it is only for women and children.
He asks for the next church and gets shelter. But the problem is that the
church has limited seats and hence he should reach in time to get there.
Now the real struggle begins. Although Chris
has to work till seven in the office he works till 5 only. He doesn’t drink
a drop of water because it will make him pee and it will waste his time. He
doesn’t even waste a single minute and works continuously, brings his son back
from school, and goes back to the church hurriedly. He still has the last
scanner left and thinks about how to sell it. He goes to a hospital to sell but while
showing the demonstration he realizes that it is not working. This wrenches his
heart as it was his last hope.
While
inspecting the machine, he finds out that one of the parts is not working but he
cannot afford to buy it. So he goes to a hospital to sell his blood and buys
the part from it. The machine starts working and he makes some money by buying
it. With that money, he gets a room and sleeps easily with his son there.
Chris on the other hand is preparing for a theory exam that he needs to pass in order to get the job. The exam day comes and Chris does it well. Now the result day has arrived and each of them is called upon by the same jury. Now it is Chris’s turn and he looks at the jury which is the same as in the first qualifier interview. The most senior of the jury tells Chris that he has worn a beautiful shirt. Chris replies that since it is going to be his last day so he wants to leave the place wearing a good shirt. He told this because he had no hope of getting the job among those highly qualified interns. That senior man from the jury asks him if he will wear the same shirt tomorrow too. This means that Chris has got the job. This leaves Chris in tears and he replies with a ‘yes’. Everything has changed in Chris’s life now. He is economically stable and living a happy life with his son. At the end of the movie, the real Chris Gardner is also shown on whom the whole movie is based. After working for a few years there, Chris establishes his own investment firm which he sells later on in multi-million dollars.
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