Joy (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 124 minutes
Directed by: David O’Russell
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Édgar Ramírez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco, Melissa Rivers, Donna Mills, Susan Lucci, Maurice Benard, Laura Wright
KRS Releasing Ltd
Who would have thought that a movie about the invention of the self-wringing mop would have made for such interesting viewing?
Joy marks the third collaboration between director David O’Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro after the successful American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook. Joy may not be the instant equal to the other two films but this semi-biographical movie comes forward as a very personal and involving tale of inspiration and success.
Lawrence is Joy Mangano, whose life is not exactly what she had wished for. She wanted to become an inventor but works as a clerk at an airline company. She has two children and her ex-husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez) is still living in the basement.
Matters get worse when Rudy (Robert De Niro) also ends up living with her after he gets chucked out by his latest girlfriend.
Rudy constantly clashes with Terry (Virgina Madsen), Joy’s mother. He also runs a gun range and a car repair ship assisted by Joy’s half-sister Peggy (Elisabeth Rohm). Joy has a strong connection with her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd) who believes in her potential.
When Joy is on a yacht owned by her father’s latest girlfriend, Trudy (Isabella Rossellini), she ends up breaking a glass and while washing away the wine and glass she cuts her hand and has an idea. She sees a mop that can be much more user friendly and decides to invent the Miracle Mop.
When she meets Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper), who runs the company QVC, he remains impressed with her ballsy attitude and even lets her become the sales point of her own product on air in order to convince the viewers to buy it. She starts to be successful on a business level and gets help from her friend Jackie (Dascha Polanco). At the same time, however, she finds herself locked in a battle over both family and commercial issues as other businesses start to encroach on her product.
With a strong central character at its core, Joy displays both delicate and rough sensibilities at the same time. Lawrence delivers another strong, vital and earnest peformance. She embodies well the idea of a woman who yearns to be free, to be independent. She manages to look earnest even in the comic moments.
Cooper fills his shoes well but his is a supporting role at best as this is Lawrence’s show. De Niro successfully gets under your skin while Rossellini also puts in a good turnout.
It’s very rewarding to see that O’Russell does not rehash his previous films. He may have familiar faces on board but the approach is totally different and with this rags-to-riches story, he delivers a film about female empowerment that puts a new hook in the princess fairy tale structure.
This is a fairy tale that girls should see – here success does not depend on the arrival of a prince on a white horse but on believing in yourself and fighting for what you want to achieve in life. The clever script manages to transform mundane issues into a movie worth watching.