the pursuit of happyness
guess who fixed her own computer?? yes ma'am (or sir), i fixed my own computer, cuz i'm just brilliant like that, plus i figured i'd google a few tips to get the old girl back up and running while i was at work. so yay, becky (maybe i'll call the computer becky) is back in biz just in time for me to write my hundredth blogpost.
this weekend, i went to go see the the pursuit of happyness. and yes, it was inspirational, and a bit of a tearjerker, and i enjoyed the movie, but now that i have seen it i can say that the misspelling of happiness is just not justified in my eyes. sorry. in truth, it's probable someone would have to have lost their life for correctly spelling the word in order for misspelling it to be ok with me. i am not a fan of intentional misspelling. and i mean to differentiate intentional misspelling from typos (lord knows i do enough of it on this blog...but NEVER in anything i consider to be a professional bit of writing, i proofread like it's my job.) and from spellings that attempt to represent the phonetics of vernacular speech...although that can also be taken slightly overboard. but to throw in a y where there should be an i, just to point up the misspelling, it irked like nothing else.
ok, but the point is the movie is good. though if i were to criticize it (i mean, besides for the messy title) i would say that it didn't give me enough shots of him at work to make me understand why mr. gardner was so good at his job that he ended up getting hired. the movie makes it seem as though he deserved the post because he suffered so much, but we know good and well his employers didn't know that. they didn't hire him because they felt bad for him, they hired him because of all the good results his work brought. they attempt that with the pension fund manager guy at the football game...but the pension manager guy ends up turning him down...and they talk about his reasoning and work ethic...but never any results from that wonderful efficiency and ethic. by results, i mean accounts landed, that sort of thing.
also, if i may point something out that is tangentially related: in the movie hitch (which i will admit was entertaining cute date movie, and i'm not a fan of cute date movies), will smith starred opposite eva mendes not just because she's gorgeous (she is) but because the producers feared that if they put a black woman in the lead actress role, white moviegoers would go see it...and if they put a white woman in that role, moviegoers both black and white would be turned off. in the pursuit of happyness, thandie newton plays the traviata wife - but i had no idea she was even in the movie until i got to the theater. and she leaves midway through the movie. and she is sufficiently ambiguously ethnic...when she was in mission impossible, i heard folks refer to her as that latina girl (she's english and zimbabwean). so what gives with black women on film? why is film afraid of black women? on another tangent, seeing that movie made me understand why my girl sheena said thandie newton, despite her pretty face, is just too skinny.
this weekend, i went to go see the the pursuit of happyness. and yes, it was inspirational, and a bit of a tearjerker, and i enjoyed the movie, but now that i have seen it i can say that the misspelling of happiness is just not justified in my eyes. sorry. in truth, it's probable someone would have to have lost their life for correctly spelling the word in order for misspelling it to be ok with me. i am not a fan of intentional misspelling. and i mean to differentiate intentional misspelling from typos (lord knows i do enough of it on this blog...but NEVER in anything i consider to be a professional bit of writing, i proofread like it's my job.) and from spellings that attempt to represent the phonetics of vernacular speech...although that can also be taken slightly overboard. but to throw in a y where there should be an i, just to point up the misspelling, it irked like nothing else.
ok, but the point is the movie is good. though if i were to criticize it (i mean, besides for the messy title) i would say that it didn't give me enough shots of him at work to make me understand why mr. gardner was so good at his job that he ended up getting hired. the movie makes it seem as though he deserved the post because he suffered so much, but we know good and well his employers didn't know that. they didn't hire him because they felt bad for him, they hired him because of all the good results his work brought. they attempt that with the pension fund manager guy at the football game...but the pension manager guy ends up turning him down...and they talk about his reasoning and work ethic...but never any results from that wonderful efficiency and ethic. by results, i mean accounts landed, that sort of thing.
also, if i may point something out that is tangentially related: in the movie hitch (which i will admit was entertaining cute date movie, and i'm not a fan of cute date movies), will smith starred opposite eva mendes not just because she's gorgeous (she is) but because the producers feared that if they put a black woman in the lead actress role, white moviegoers would go see it...and if they put a white woman in that role, moviegoers both black and white would be turned off. in the pursuit of happyness, thandie newton plays the traviata wife - but i had no idea she was even in the movie until i got to the theater. and she leaves midway through the movie. and she is sufficiently ambiguously ethnic...when she was in mission impossible, i heard folks refer to her as that latina girl (she's english and zimbabwean). so what gives with black women on film? why is film afraid of black women? on another tangent, seeing that movie made me understand why my girl sheena said thandie newton, despite her pretty face, is just too skinny.
Labels: film
I completely agree with you on the misspelling of the word 'happiness' in that title. Every time I pass an ad for the movie I cringe and my heart sinks a little bit...I guess that's why we're both members of the PROUD TO PROOFREAD POSSE!
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:34 PM
Post a Comment