[yasr_overall_rating]
“Joy” is the story of a family across four generations and the woman who rises to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.
Jennifer Lawrence has proved, without a doubt, that she truly is a movie star. She transcends all boundaries and is more than capable of holding her own opposite movie heavyweights like Robert De Niro, Diane Ladd, and Donald Sutherland, to name but a few. But although she is highly talented, that won’t always prevent her from choosing movie projects that while they may look good on paper, won’t always translate successfully to the big screen. And sadly, that is the case with “Joy.” David O. Russell directed Lawrence in her Oscar-winning performance in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle” but with “Joy,” the true story of struggling single mother Joy Mangano, who invented the Miracle Mop, the film just doesn’t live up to expectations.
Lawrence delivers another standout performance and while her supporting cast, including Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, and Diane Ladd, are more than competent in their respective roles, it feels like their characters were created simply to be condensed so that Lawrence could outshine all of them and procure the spotlight. Lawrence has a knack for doing that anyway so why not give her a supporting cast that could reinforce her role, all the while, allowing them their own moment to shine, instead of Lawrence stealing all of them?
The movie is based on the true story of inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, the creator of the self-wringing Miracle Mop and Huggable Hangers. Lawrence plays her role with an unwavering tenacity and perseverance that ultimately pays off for her. When we are first introduced to her though, in the late 1970s, she is a struggling single mother of two young children who works at the airport as an airline reservations manager. Her mother Terry (Virginia Madsen), lives in her house along with her and has transformed her living room into her own private bedroom, where she does nothing but watch soap operas all day long. Her father Rudy (Robert De Niro), has just broken up with his girlfriend and winds up on her doorstep, where she has no choice but to put him in the basement with her estranged ex-husband Tony (Édgar Ramírez), a wannabe singer who spends all his time crooning cheesy love songs at a nearby club in the evenings. Her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd) also lives with her but she has the utmost faith in Joy, even when Joy does not. She constantly reminds her of the inventions she used to construct when she was younger but since having a family and a job, her creative talents have become practically nonexistent.
When Joy is let go from her job, she comes up with the idea of a new kind of mop, one where the head is made from a continuous loop of cotton that can be easily wrung out without getting the user’s hands wet. At this point, her father Rudy is dating wealthy socialite Trudy (Isabella Rossellini), whose late husband left her a lot of money and Joy approaches her with a business plan for her to invest in. Initially reluctant, Trudy finally agrees and they go into production. With over 50,000 mops at their disposal, and no way to sell them, Joy’s ex Tony informs her that he knows a guy. With nothing left to lose, they both travel to Pennsylvania to meet with Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper), the owner of a new company called QVC, who sell products on television and an is old friend of Tony’s. He agrees to see Joy and at first, he is not blown away by her invention but when she offers to demonstrate it for him, he begins to see something and not just in the product, but in Joy herself.
After Neil has one of his top sales people offer to demonstrate the mop live on TV, Joy and her family tune in, hoping it will take off, only to watch him clumsily try to operate it and then quickly cast it aside. Furious, Joy marches back up to QVC headquarters and demands that she be the one to exhibit her own invention and Neil reluctantly agrees. However, once she overcomes her inaugural introduction to being on live TV, and shows the world exactly what her mop is capable of, sales take off and she becomes a star. Where previously celebrities were the ones to endorse various products, Joy becomes a household name and sensation and begins a revolution where inventors are able to come on TV themselves and promote their own creations.
It is what you would expect for a fish out of water tale, where the protagonist eventually receives her due desserts for all of her hard work and determination but where the film falls down, is in Joy’s family. While this movie might very well be based on the true story of Joy Mangano and her meteoric rise to fame, other than her grandmother Mimi, the rest of her family are unreliable, fair-weathered people. Whenever things go south, Joy’s father Rudy and his girlfriend Trudy continuously disparage and criticize her, along with Joy’s step-sister Clarinda (Laura Wright), constantly telling her how to be a better person and a better businesswoman but when things are going smoothly, they have nothing but praise for her. Maybe it’s just me but with family like that, who needs enemies?
While I understand that the film and the characters are based on reality, there is a certain amount of creative leeway a filmmaker has because when you surround the heroine of your movie with contemptuous and disrespectful people, family or not, you begin to wonder why she keeps them around. While you can’t help who your family is, you can most certainly keep them at arm’s length. They do nothing but block her creative juices and suck her dry, financially, even going so far as to make deals behind her back with repercussions so big, they could bankrupt her and everything she has worked so hard to attain. So again I ask, why keep these people around you?
It’s a rags-to-riches story and Lawrence is the only positive aspect throughout the entire film. Director David O. Russell channels early Martin Scorsese, filling the movie with continuous tracking shots and a lively 70s soundtrack but unfortunately, it never really achieves its desired goal because while the film certainly looks like the work of a youthful Scorsese, it lacks the cinematic bite the famed auteur infused into all of his early work. Maybe next time, Russell should try a new approach, his own.
In theaters December 25th
