One woman’s fairytale existence for the American dream is haltered by a leaching family, in David O Russell’s latest feature film “Joy”. This psychological drama is the wild true story of Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) and her Italian-American family across four generations about the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty by inventing the Miracle, becoming a matriarch in her own right. Betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence and the scars of love, pave the road in this intense emotional and honest movie about becoming a true boss of family and enterprise while facing a world of unforgiving commerce. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces. Like David O. Russell’s previous films, “Joy” defies a genre to tell a story of family, loyalty, and love. The movie also stars longtime Russell partners Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, as well as a well rounded out all star cast of Edgar Ramirez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, and Isabella Rosellini.
Most of the crowds who pack in to see Russell’s work will usually be split 50/50. After the triumph of “Silver Linings Playbook” and the split in half reaction to “American Hustle”, David’s work has certainly been among the most dissected in Hollywood. With his latest feature, he really hits the nail on the head with offering his most compelling of characters to date. Make no mistakes about it, this is a film that enriches itself in powerful feminist living without relying on the mom-and-pop storyline famous for these kinds of storytelling. The film centers around that one character and giving the audience as much as she handles on a daily basis. There are many scenes in the movie that feel like they carry on forever, and that’s to really communicate the kinds of struggles that this jaded woman goes through with an ever-challenging family. Everything in her life feels like a phony Disney fairytale told to her by her grandmother, but she realizes that it’s only up to her to change every bit of it. With that agenda, “Joy” is one of the most inspiring movies of 2015, even if that story can be a little incoherrent at times.
Lets not beat around the bush here, Jennifer Lawrence once again gives an Oscar worthy performance. Complete with long-winded expositional dialogue scenes and an underlying rage that captures the very passionate spirit of the character, Joy is easily relatable to anyone who desires to do better with their lives. To anyone who has read recently about Lawrence’s battle for equal rights in actors pay, her role in this movie will provide the structured debate on that topic while not beating the audience over the head with it. Without Jennifer, this film is a mediocre offering at best, and I think Russell knows that he is dealing with arguably one of the best actresses going today, and that is why he sticks with her for all of his features. Besides Lawrence, De Niro is annoyingly charasmatic as Joy’s father. He pokes and prods unintentionally at the very well being of this character, but he is always supportive for his daughter even when he doesn’t fully believe in her. Virginia Madsen also goes through a fascinating transformation on-screen. Buried under a wig and big rimmed glasses, I could barely recognize the longtime actress, but her portrayal is a committed one. Joy sees an inevitability in herself being bed-ridden like her Mother, and the two’s back and forth bickering provides plenty of giggle-worthy moments, reminding the audience that at the center of all this drama is a well intentioned comedy.
The screenplay is both hit and miss for it’s many nooks and dives into Joy’s psyche. I think this film will be a lot better upon a second viewing because there are many scenes that kind of just halt the progress of a well paced film, but I realized the movie needed them to communicate what is going on in Joy’s head. My only problem with this idea is that it often distracts us from the bigger picture being played out in real time. Also, the ending is satisfying but a little predictable considering the scenes lay it out so obviously. We keep waiting for that big bomb to go off emotionally that never really does. From viewing the trailer more than a hundred times over the last year, I noticed that a lot of scenes were left on the cutting room floor, so I have to wonder how much of this storyline was edited out. There certainly is more room for some of these scenes to grow, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more to it than the near two hour final cut that we received.
Overall, “Joy” is one of those films that you watch more or less for the performances. That’s not to say that Russell doesn’t provide enough enjoyable content here. He shoots a beautiful film and prides himself on being one of those directors whose films are more than meets the eye. But his 12th directoral offering will trail those creative brilliance offerings of “Silver Linings Playbook”, “The Fighter”, or “American Hustle”. What he does so well is take a real life story whose content may or may not be stimulating, and add the kind of on-screen sparks that prides itself (Strangely) on being one of the feel good films of the holiday season. Lawrence and Russell continue to enforce themselves as one of Hollywood’s strongest 1-2 punches, and “Joy” packs a strong enough jab to leave it’s audience starstruck.
8/10