Review of Joy (2015) by Ashlee B — 07 Jan 2016

Jennifer Lawrence stars in a the title role as Joy, an inventor whose life hasn't turned out quite as she's hoped as a child. Saddled with an ex-husband who lives in her basement and taking care of her dotting mother (Virgina Madsen)who stays in bed all day watching soap operas, Joy decides to take control of her life when she comes up with the idea of the self-wringing mop whilst wiping a spillage aboard her father's (Robert De Niro) girlfriend's boat.

This is the 3rd collaboration between Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and director David O Russell and is the weakest of the 3 movies. Lawrence carries the movie, however it's the characters around her that let the film down by either putting in totally over the top performances or being just down right unlikeable. One of the flaws of American Hustler that O Russell was being self-indulgent and it appears that he hasn't learned from his mistakes, however unlike American Hustle which had great performances and lots of humour, Joy just comes across as surreal and the first half of the film is a real mess with characters appearing and disappearing out of shot willy-nilly.