Review of Joy (2015) by Grant S — 11 Nov 2016

Joy is a bright, energetic young woman with a complicated personal life. She is divorced with two children, her ex-husband lives in her basement, her mother lives upstairs and just watches soap operas all day, and her father (divorced from her mom for 17 years now) is now also living with her. Joy designs a revolutionary new mop and this leads to all sorts of adventures, good and bad.

Dull and unengaging. Rags-to-riches stories are generally quite emotional, engaging and entertaining, as you want the underdog to succeed. Being a true story you also feel you are learning something too. However, Joy just seems flat and uninteresting.

The setup was initially interesting: the quirkiness of the situation and characters was quite amusing. However this wore off pretty quickly and the quirkiness became overdone and irritating.

The plot development had some interesting moments but most of what happens is just everyday commerce. Director David O Russell tries to make something out of nothing at just about every step in the journey. Many of the setbacks, solutions and general business practices seem ridiculous and unlikely in actual business.

All-star cast - Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Isabella Rossellini, Virginia Madsen, Dianne Ladd - does well, but they were never the problem. The script and direction are the issues. More broadly, was this even a story worth telling?