If the rags-to-riches tale of Chris Gardner wasn't true, you might think it was the invention of the world's sappiest motivational speaker. Penniless and homeless for a period in the early 1980s, the man remained committed to caring for his young son while working toward a career as a stockbroker. It's stuff tailor-made for an inspirational Hollywood flick, and it is a story told with sensitivity and skill in The Pursuit of Happyness.

Will Smith deservedly earned an Oscar nomination as Chris Gardner. As we meet him in 1981, he is eking out a living by selling overpriced bone-density scanners to physicians in the San Francisco Bay area. His wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), is pulling double-shifts at a laundry, but the couple's expenses continue to mount -- not the least of which is the Chinatown daycare center, Happyness, where they leave their son, Christopher, (Smith's real-life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith), during the week.

Then Chris sees what might be his way out of poverty. During a sales call, he meets a man climbing out of a cherry-red sportscar. Chris has two questions for the stranger: What does he do and how does he do it? The man happily answers that he's a stockbroker, and that you don't necessarily need a college degree to do it. Chris is hooked. He finagles a meeting with an executive at Dean Witter, where he impresses by quickly solving a Rubik's cube. Along the way, Chris charms his way into snagging an unpaid internship that might -- might -- eventually lead to a paying gig.

His shrewish wife isn't so impressed. Linda packs her things and leaves Chris to raise their young son alone. Things go from bad to very, very bad. Chris is thrown in jail for delinquent parking tickets. His bone-density scanners are stolen. He and his boy are evicted. He is hit by a car. He is forced to eat at soup kitchens and stay at homeless shelters and even -- in a particularly harrowing scene -- a public restroom in a BART subway station.

Scripted by Steve Conrad (whose The Weather Man also dealt its protagonist seemingly crippling body blows), The Pursuit of Happyness is buoyed by one very important caveat: We know things ultimately turn out well for Chris Gardner. Will Smith's voiceover narration as Chris might seem superfluous on occasion, but it adds a dimension of distance and perspective to the misery that we watch unfold onscreen, and it helps buttress some of the more heartwrenching moments.

One of the picture's more unique aspects is also its most refreshing. Movies are rife with tearjerkers in which good people are kicked and beaten down by life, but Pursuit of Happyness, like Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, offers us a likeable, self-assured protagonist who is relatively free of self-pity. Chris Gardner weathers periods of darkness and desperation, but he does not give up. He remains committed to his child and to himself.

While a victim of bad luck, he does not let himself feel victimized. It is notable that Pursuit of Happyness almost ignores issues of race. Chris is black, but the filmmakers do not scour the implications of that when he arrives in the decidedly white world of Dean Witter. That isn't to say the movie suggests the existence of a colorblind society. Hardly. Chris' internship supervisor (Dan Castellaneta) has a curious habit of asking Chris to fetch him coffee. Even so, Chris does not dwell on injustice, instead directing his energy on taking charge of his life.

Will Smith hasn't exactly stretched himself as an actor over the years, but here he pours his considerable charm and likeability into the role. Not surprisingly, there is also a touching chemistry in the onscreen father-son relationship. Director Gabriele Muccino (L'Uultimo Bacio) wisely focuses on heightening audience identification with Chris. Only occasionally does Muccino pull away to place his hero's journey in a larger context, letting us glimpse the sea of homeless in the San Francisco of the Reagan era. How many other Chris Gardners are in that sea of humanity?

Presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen, the print transfer is a stunner. Details are sharp and clear, colors are vivid and blacks are inky.

The sound, captured in Dolby Digital 5.1, is fine, but this dialogue-driven film does not exactly showcase immersive audio. A French track is also available in 5.1. Subtitles are in English, French and Spanish.

In Gabriele Muccino's commentary, he apologizes if his thick Italian accent makes him difficult to understand, but it proves not to be much of a hindrance. Nevertheless, his remarks tend to skew toward the minutiae of filmmaking -- handling extras, shooting in a stationery elevator and the like. He also gets a minor demerit for incorrectly identifying Dan Castellaneta as the voice of The Simpsons' Bart Simpson. Castellaneta actually is the voice of Homer. D'oh! At any rate, Muccino's commentary is not particularly enlightening, but he is likeable and engaged throughout. A Will Smith-Chris Gardner commentary would've been outstanding, but maybe that will have to wait for the super-duper edition.

A handful of featurettes provides modest insights into the movie. Making Pursuit: An Italian Take on the American Dream details the selection and impact of Muccino, who was handpicked by Will Smith after the superstar saw two of Muccino's Italian flicks. Muccino told Pursuit's producers that a foreign filmmaker would be the best choice to make a movie about the American Dream, adding that it was foreigners who best appreciated what it meant. Clocking in at 17 minutes, 34 seconds, the mini-documentary includes on-set interviews with cast and crew and offers some bits about what Muccino contributed to the project.

Father and Son: On Screen and Off (7:29) details the filmmakers' selection of Will Smith's real son to play Chris Gardner's little boy. For whatever reason, an interview with young Jaden Christopher Syre Smith is conspicuously absent.

The Man Behind the Movie: A Conversation with Chris Gardner (13:02) is fairly interesting, but somewhat dispassionate. Curious viewers will be better served to scope out 20/20 segments on Gardner at YouTube.

Here's an oddity: Inside the Rubik's Cube dabbles into the origins and continued allure of that maddening 1980s brain-teaser. Its connection to the movie is mighty tenuous, but whatever; this six-minute, 41-second piece is fluffy and entertaining.

Finally, the DVD includes audio only to a song "inspired" by the movie, Bebe Winans and Dave Koz's "I Can." The disc also has a bunch of previews: Spider-Man 3, Surf's Up, Casino Royale, Stranger Than Fiction, Rocky Balboa, Stomp the Yard, Spider-Man 2.1, The Natural – Director's Cut, Across the Universe, Hitch, The Holiday and Catch and Release.

The Pursuit of Happiness is far from perfect. Its script hits an occasional false note. And even if Chris Gardner's foot in the door with Dean Witter relied on his ability to solve a Rubik's cube, as is depicted here, the contrivance still strikes this reviewer as a bit too kitschy a plot device. But so what? While not a great movie, The Pursuit of Happyness is still a very good one, a cathartic emotional experience that gives you a character worth rooting for.