Turned out to be a really good movie when the smoke clears.

Rating: 6/10 (29 December 2015)

I went into this movie with no idea of what I was getting into. The trailer was not helpful in letting me know anything except for the fact that Jennifer Lawrence was going to star in a movie that feature the same stars of Silver Linings Playbook. I honestly did not get the butt smooching Silver Linings was given, it's OK, and for that matter, I'm not the biggest JLaw fan either, but I must say, Joy made me buy the product Lawrence is selling.
The movie starts off like a situation comedy from the 1970s. Something created by Norman Lear like Maude or One Day at a Time. We get to know Joy, a divorce mother of two whose ex-husband, Tony still lives in the basement, and is ironically more supportive than her flesh and blood, who mean well but are too shattered themselves to be a good role model.
Then the movie gets really interesting when she invents the miracle mop and goes through the motions to sell it. From here the movie starts to escalate with interest in what seems like the weirdest plot you can think of for such a critically acclaimed director and his juggernaut cast, but it's not.
Joy is the perfect underdog story for anyone who knows what it's like to reach for the stars only to have people around you telling you to stop, cause you won't make it. It reminds me of the boxing movie Creed, but it's just a different type of ring Joy is fighting in.
The way the story is set up, it just keeps getting better and better and you can't help to root for Joy when she succeeds and feel her frustration when the world screws her over.
Jennifer Lawrence is a good actor, I can't deny that, and in the hands of David O Russell, she very interesting, Especially in Joy. This one is more worthy of the acclaim than Silver Linings Playbook.