Joy (2015) Review!!!

Synopsis – Joy is the story of the title character, who rose to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.

My Take – Judging by the trailers, I wasn’t really sure what to expect of this film. I just thought to myself why would anyone make a 124 minute long film about the invention of ‘magic mop’? But I knew that I was a fan of director David O. Russell’s work (such as The Fighter, American Hustle & Silver Lining Playbook) and I knew that I was going to give it a shot just because of him. Also, for the third time in a few years, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro are appearing in a film by the freewheeling David O. Russell. Make no mistake about it though, this is strictly JLaw‘s show. So, you can’t go wrong with talent at least. Lucky for me, I was wrong, the film is so much more. The film is about believing in yourself, which I am sure many out there would agree, is probably the most difficult thing to do. When the people closest to you, the circumstances of your own life and even the past mistakes and present doubts which we all have, seem stacked against you, it’s tough to push forward to reach your goals. Even when you do believe in yourself and remain determined to reach those goals, sometimes things just don’t work out. We rarely hear the stories of those who try their hardest and always fall short, but when we hear a story of someone who overcomes the odds and fulfills his or her potential, it encourages us dreamers. Such a story gives us hope. This film is about hope. The story follows Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence). As a child, Joy did great in school and always liked to make things. She seemed destined for something big, but, adult Joy is being held back by something seemingly inescapable – everyday life. She’s the kind of person who takes care of daily tasks, family members and basically whoever and whatever needs taking care of. Joy has bills and a mortgage to pay, so she works as a put-upon airline reservation agent.

At home, she’s a put-upon daughter, mother and ex-wife. Living with her are her two small children, 5-year-old Christie (played by twins Aundrea and Gia Gadsby) and 3-year-old Tommy (twins Tomas and Zeke Elizondo), Joy’s mother, Terry (Virginia Madsen), who does nothing but sit on her bed and watch soap operas on TV, Joy’s gruff and stubborn father, Rudy (Robert DeNiro), Joy’s grandmother, Mimi (Diane Ladd), and Joy’s ex-husband, Tony (Edgar Ramirez), whom she allows to live in her basement. Joy’s half-sister, Peggy (Elisabeth Röhm) is the only close family member who doesn’t live in the house, which is good, considering the tense rivalry between the two women. This is Joy’s life. After one particularly stressful day, Joy literally dreamed up an invention which she became convinced she could market, in spite of her lack of business experience. Joy used her daughter’s crayons to draw what became “The Miracle Mop”, a self-cleaning mop, which would never have to be replaced. She has her father set up a pitch meeting for her with Rudy’s new girlfriend, Trudy (Isabella Rossellini), the eccentric widow of a successful businessman. With Trudy’s initial investment, Joy sets up production in Rudy’s auto repair shop. After some frustrating experiences trying to find ways to market her invention, a QVC executive (Bradley Cooper) agrees to put her product on TV. After a couple more fits and starts, the product is a success, but Joy’s struggles are ongoing. To ensure her long-term success, Joy has to overcome obstacles caused by her lack of capital, some dismissive potential partners, plus difficult and unscrupulous business associates, not to mention jealous, greedy, negative and unsupportive family members. Absolutely nothing comes easy for Joy, but she’s determined to make something of herself. This is a typical David O Russell film with a few notable exceptions. Russell‘s script and direction display his signature quirky characters, although he has dialed back the eccentricity. This film is as enjoyable as “Hustle” and definitely more family-friendly than “Hustle” or “Playbook“, as Russell makes this only his second film to earn a “PG-13” from the MPAA. This film is also more uplifting and focused than those other two. As with “Hustle“, Russell takes liberties with real-life scenarios, bending a true story to his will. What he gives us is a dramatic, funny and inspiring tale that goes beyond the challenges overcome by one specific person or gender. It’s no secret that Russell is an expert in creating characters. His movies are filled with quirky individuals who are a lot of fun to get to know and a delight to share their story with. And what’s the easiest way to bring your brilliant characters to life? Find the right actors/actresses to play them of course. So every year (Russell has become a lot more prolific in recent years) now we get a film with an almost identical cast. It’s quite unique in a way, I can’t think of another example of a filmmaker doing this, at least not in the modern age. And as long as the actors continue to get Oscar nominations out of his films and his films themselves also continue to be nominated I can see no reason why either party would or should ever pull out of this little arrangement. This isn’t your average story of rags-to-riches stardom, largely because the rags don’t turn into long-term, or even momentary, riches. Every time Joy seems to get ahead, be it by achieving hundreds of thousands of sales of her mops on QVC or earning enough money to get out of debt, a new and uglier problem raises its head, be it the theft of her patent or her profits in some way.

Joy makes multiple deals with the devil in terms of leaving herself vulnerable and helpless if things don’t work out exactly the way she needs them to, including taking out a second mortgage against her home and borrowing copious amounts of money from her father’s girlfriend all in the name of giving her daughters a better life. The biggest setback with the film other than the lack of confidence in its story judging by the film’s approach and the fact that it undercuts Mangano’s namesake and significance for so long, like it’s ashamed it exists to tell her story, is the disjointed direction. For the first hour, Russell conducts this film like a soap opera, undoubtedly juxtaposing the film with the ridiculous soap opera Joy’s mother watches on a regular basis, by introducing numerous characters and numerous dramatic situations. Halfway through the film, Russell abandons this style to focus on Joy’s rise to fame and the multiple setbacks she faces in a cynical world that ostensibly doesn’t want her to succeed. Such dichotomous approaches would’ve worked well if they had served as the thesis for the three-hour film, but with this approach, the film comes off as woefully disconnected and miscommunicated. Jennifer Lawrence is a surprisingly good actress for her age and she always manages to impress. It’s great to see this young woman order everyone around and go out of her way to succeed. Robert De Niro does a much better job than I’ve come to expect from him. Don’t get me wrong, De Niro‘s an excellent actor but I feel like he’s been phoning it in for a few years now. He gives a great performance here though and he gives the film some much needed levity. Bradley Cooper as always excels. Edgar Ramirez & Virginia Madsen are likable. It’s unfortunate that the producers saw fit to take even more liberties in their marketing of the film. The movie’s trailers seemed to consciously avoid letting movie audiences know that this is a film mainly about the invention and marketing of a mop. Then, the combination of the title, the movie poster’s images and the Christmas Day release date seem intended to make the film look like a Christmas movie. Maybe it’s just me, but I find deceptive marketing practices offensive and feel that they tarnish the reputation of what is otherwise an excellent movie. On the whole, ‘Joy‘ is an innovative, engaging & inspirational film which proves yet again that David O. Russell is one of the best directors out there.