Joy is not. It’s not a happy movie. It’s not
an exceptional movie. It’s a rather annoying movie. I give it a solid C. A
Facebook friend and his wife loved it. We had a short written discussion about
it and agreed to disagree. Can I appreciate a character driven movie? Yes,
absolutely. Have I liked previous David O. Russell flicks? Yes – Silver
Lining Playbook and American Hustle were excellent. I
found Joy rather tedious and just was not drawn into the line of
storytelling.
Based on a true story, Joy is an extremely smart gal,
destined for great things, who ends up working to try to make ends meet, to
keep her kids fed, to keep her mother able to just watch soap operas, to keep
her ex-husband still living in her basement and doing his singing gigs, and to
take in her crabby father (an annoying Robert De Niro). The house is falling
apart, and she seems to be the only sane one in the crowd. Jennifer Lawrence is
excellent as Joy. I had no problem with her at all – she projects a fierceness
and intelligence that leaps from the screen. I can be invested in her character
and I wanted her to succeed.
She’s always been a thinker and an inventor, and she arrives
at a concept for a new mop – one that has a detachable head for throwing in the
washing machine, one that has a wringer effect so you don’t have to touch the
dirty mop with your own hands. Ingenious! She creates a model, manages to
convince Bradley Cooper’s QVC guy to take her on, and she appears on the show
to sell the mop herself. Overnight success, right? Well, no. There’s a lot
about patents and molds and contracts and getting ripped off and Joy battling
everyone while still carrying everyone on her back.
It’s a pull one up from the bootstraps movie. Normally I
like those. But – while I liked Joy the fighter, and Joy trying to be a
business woman, I detested the peripheral characters and how they were
presented. Admittedly, this was based on a true story and perhaps this poor
woman really had to put up with all of these nut jobs, but I found myself very
detached from the film. I kept thinking, “This is so annoying.”
Thus, it gives me joy to save you, the film goer, from seeing Joy.
Consider this my first good deed of the new year. You are welcome.
