Review of Joy (2015) by Brent_Marchant — 25 Dec 2015

While watching this film, I couldn't help but repeatedly remark to myself, "What unusual subject matter for a movie." To make such a movie work, though, it has to fire on all cylinders, which it unfortunately does not.

The movie works in a number of ways (acting, casting, inspirational themes) but drops the ball in others (writing, pacing, staying on point). Had the script and film editing gone through some additional tweaking, this might have been a truly terrific movie, but, as it stands now, it's merely above average.

With that said, however, be sure to give sufficient props to Jennifer Lawrence, Isabella Rossellini and Virginia Madsen for great acting turns in their respective performances.