Joy Review

Before watching this movie, I heard it described as a "modern feminist fairytale." That's good. David O. Russell has a talent for creating modern stories about real life and making fiction feel remarkably real and resonant. However, as I found out while at the end of this movie, Joy is actuallynonfiction, and based off of the story of Joy Mangano, inventor of the Miracle Mop. I wish I had known that beforehand, because I watched this movie when I was in the mood for a modern feminist fairytale. In my mind, something can't really be a fairytale when it's real life. That's just me. Anyway, it didn't ruin the experience for me, because Joy is a darn good film that has nothing to be ashamed of.

With just about every nonfiction film, I wonder how closely it sticks to real life. Perhaps the most true-to-life movie I've ever seen was 1992 television film Stalin, a masterpiece of meticulous research put to screen. One of the less reliable movies that I've seen recently was Eddie the Eagle, which took massive creative liberties for a story that didn't need them. As far as I can tell, Joy sticks to the facts. I did some quick research on Joy Mangano, and most of the details line up with the film, save for the number of children. In real life, Joy had three children with her husband Tony; in this movie, she has two. Overall, there isn't a whole lot about Joy Mangago on Wikipedia to help me in corroborating the story presented by David O. Russell, and the main thing that tells me that the film gets it right is the fact that Joy herself was one of its executive producers. I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that she didn't let them butcher her life story.

Jennifer Lawrence's performance was, of course, solid. It wasn't as exciting and many-splendor'd as the trailers had me expecting, but she was still fairly immersed in the role, and I think that it's the type of performance that many aspiring actors would kill for. Robert De Niro, meanwhile, had a ton of charisma playing the her dysfunctional father, and is by far the most entertaining part of the film. Perhaps the one person who didn't deliver a great performance was Bradley Cooper. He's a remarkably talented actor, and he didn't do anything wrong in this role — however, he was shoehorned into this movie, and his presence was distracting. With Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, I saw their roles. With Bradley Cooper, I didn't see his role.

Although edited together to feel like a drama, it also has some of the fast pacing that I've associated with David O. Russell, so even though these actors are cast to add some gravitas to these roles, the film also makes them feel just zany enough to remind viewers that it's okay to be entertained. It fits the emotional state of the main character, whose life is hectic and very unstable. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Jennifer Lawrence, as famous as she is, blends into her role, because David O. Russell has a very strong feeling for Joy Mangano.

Well, I guess I do have a few slight criticisms. For the first act of the film, I wasn't sure what its focus was or where the story was going. Once I realized that it was a story about the invention of the Miracle Mop, though, it became very interesting.

And then that very interesting story ends, and I feel it happened a little too quickly. Maybe "quickly" isn't the right word; I just feel that the scene that it ended on was an odd final scene. I think I can see how it looks good on paper, but I just felt that the movie had a few scenes left. I felt that I was getting near the end of the film, but not that I was actually at the end.

The lasting impression that Joy will leave me is that it's tough to start a business. And risky. That's what this film is all about, and it's put me off from some of my more optimistic aspirations to do something businesslike. While Joy doesn't bog bog the viewer down in the paperwork and all of the technical details, it does do a good job depicting the uncertainty of such ventures, and that there can be many unforeseen complications, and most especially — that it will probably feel like the whole world has turned against you. Not everyone is going to have the second chances that she received, and not everyone is going to get a generous lone to kick-start their business. Even though Joy succeeds at the end, the end result of this film is still discouraging. It's odd saying that about a film that overall has a fairly positive outlook, but that's the conclusion that I've come to. I guess I'll have to make my millions some other way.