Chris Gardner (Will Smith) has dreams bigger than his paycheck. Making a meager living as a salesman of portable bone density scanners, the extremely smart yet still down on his luck husband and father can’t help but think life has more to offer than this. His son Christopher (Smith’s real son Jaden Christopher Syre) deserves more. His wife Linda (Thandie Newton) deserves more. Heck, he deserves more, and after meeting a sportscar-driving stockbroker not near as good at numbers as he is Chris decides to put his best foot forward go out and get the glories his family merits.

Linda doesn’t think much of these starry-eyed dreams, however. After her husband applies for – and gets – a prestigious nonpaying internship with a brokerage firm, she leaves both him and her son to go live with her sister in New York. Now this newly single San Francisco father has problems far greater than just competing with nineteen other eager-beaver interns for a job, he’s also Christopher’s only means of support and guidance. With money disappearing and options dwindling, Chris is running out of ideas, the possibility of outright failure and destitution hanging over his head like a crushing anvil of annihilation.

But failure is not an option. Even when things are at their darkest; one of his precious machines is stolen, the pair is evicted from their modest apartment, shelters fill before they can find a bed and friends no longer answer their desperate knocks; Chris refuses to give up hope. His son is counting on him to succeed, looking up to him to lead the way, and unlike the father he himself never got the opportunity to know this dad isn’t about to let his only child suffer any longer than absolutely necessary.

Based on the title character’s true story, the new film “The Pursuit of Happyness” (the ‘y’ is supposed to be there, the word’s misspelling one of the triggers pushing Chris to action) is an uplifting drama of a man who refused to give up on the dream of a better life for his son. It is a tale of the human spirit’s ability to withstand adversity, pain and suffocating catastrophe, a journey showcasing how one parent’s all-powerful love for his child can allow him to change both their lives forever.

Needless to say, a movie like this has the potential to be an almost unbearable exercise in sugar-coated schmaltz and ham-fisted melodrama. But that is not the case here, this one a surprisingly emotional winner powered by a performance from the elder Smith ranking as the finest (even more so than “Ali”) of his entire career. It is rousing entertainment, a “Rocky” story for the undervalued, and if a person doesn’t stand up and cheer come the climax than they had better check their pulse because they’re probably dead.

No need to mince words, this film is good (and is probably going to be the first Frank Capra-style populist hit in I don’t know how long), and if not for a few glaring miscues it would probably rank as one of the very best of the year. Director Gabriele Muccino’s (“L’Ultimo Bacio”) film is so viscerally absorbing some of it struck me numb, while Steven Conrad’s (“The Weather Man”) script eschews the usual clichés to present a story that feels intimate and new.

There are some problems, the most glaring director’s incessant overuse of Andrea Guerra’s (“Hotel Rwanda”) obnoxious score. The stupid thing is everywhere, covering the real, almost documentary-like emotions of the piece with sap and insulting the audience with its cloyingly maudlin themes. I also didn’t like the usually reliable Newton in this at all, her histrionic character so repulsively exasperating I was beside myself with joy the moment she disappeared for good.

There are some other issues. The movie is far too languidly paced, and it’s really hard to get a feel for Chris’ brokerage firm handlers as they’re all so sketchily drawn. Also, for a movie ultimately about obtaining happiness this thing can be awfully depressing, long stretches so hard to watch I almost felt like popping some Prozac to be able to survive it. But overall these really are minor issues, tiny ripples made by insignificant pebbles plopping harmlessly in a pristine lake of wonderment. This movie roused me, made me sit up straight in my theater seat, the rapturous applause the preview audience met it with at the conclusion for once a well-earned honor.

For me, this picture boils down to one scene, one glorious moment between father and son. Having lost everything, the two Gardners sit on a subway station bench contemplating their situation. This is rock-bottom, as bad is it is probably ever going to get for the pair. But at this lowest point the father will not let his son wallow in the elder’s despair. Together they play a game, an exercise in imagination that erases demons, shoots for the stars and brings laughter to a gloomy reality. It is here the movie sings, stirred me to rapture and made me realize just how much I wanted to exalt its praise.

Scenes like this make “The Pursuit of Happyness” stand out, separates it from a pack of ignominious uplifting biopic also-rans. Dreams aren’t easy. They don’t happen overnight. Most of us work our whole lives achieving them. Muccino’s film knows this, understands it like few other Hollywood productions. It is what makes it good, gives the film the power to uplift audiences almost effortlessly. For me, realizing that and being able to tell people about it might just be the greatest joy, the greatest happiness, of them all.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)