In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invested the family savings in Ostelo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice more expensive than x-ray with practically the same resolution. The white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to the relationship with his wife that leaves him and moves to New York. Without money and wife, but totally committed with his son Christopher, Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, disputing for one career in the end of six months training period without any salary with other twenty candidates. Meanwhile, homeless, he has all sorts of difficulties with his son.

Tyson Mao (contestant on "Beauty and the Geek" (2005)) served as a consultant on this film for the prop department.

Christopher Gardner:
You gotta trust me, all right?


Christopher:
I trust you.


Christopher Gardner:
'Cause I'm getting a better job

Revealing mistakes: When Chris is visiting the doctor who buys his last machine, the x-ray hanging in the background is upside down. The x-ray is of an abdomen. The pelvis and bladder should be at the bottom, it is at the top.

Written and Performed by Seal
Produced by Bill Bottrell
Seal appears courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.