Joy - Movie Review

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2015)

Joy: "We got here from hard work, patience, and humility. Don't think the world owes you anything because the world owes you nothing".
The story is about a Long Island single mother who had to fight every inch of the way when she came up with the Miracle Mop - a self- wringing design that turned her into one of the most successful entrepreneurs in America.
So I've just seen David O. Russell's new film "Joy" and it was pretty disappointing. This is coming from a guy who wanted this movie to be brilliant and it was on my most anticipated movie of December, but it sadly didn't live up to that exceptions.
You had no idea how much I wanted "Joy" to be a great movie and also how I wanted it to be David O. Russell's best film, because while I wasn't a big fan of American Hustle (after re-watching a few times) but I thought this movie will bring him back to his old roots, because I've notice he picks style over substance in his last movie (Silver Linings Playbook isn't one of them). The story in the movie seemed to be laid back for David O. Russell, so he doesn't go too carried away with the style he presents in his movies. And there are a few good shots, creative camera work in some scenes, and that's really it. He dose nothing to the story that made it exciting or even interesting. I like David O. Russell as a director, I really do, but this guy is pretty far away from flawless.
Jennifer Lawrence performance was the one thing that wasn't disappointing. She did a great and strong performance in this movie, but her Long Island accent was a bit off at times and you may think that the actually person herself that Lawrence is playing (Joy Mangano) sounds like that, well I did my research and let me tell you no, she doesn't. But all that side, she did a solid performance and she was the only likable character in this movie. Great work Lawrence.
The story itself isn't that interesting coming to think of it. Just reading the story of what the movie is about isn't that engaging, but I thought with a huge cast like this, David O. Russell behind the camera and the trailers made it look promising, because maybe these more to this story that we don't know about, but in the movie stuff happens and are main character is going through hell...oh and these the unlikable characters in Joys life. This story is loosely based on Joy Mangano life.
I didn't give a single crap about any of the character in this movie and that's this movie biggest flaw. All of characters (expect Joy) feels like movie characters and every time their say something it wasn't convincing and didn't feel real. Not once did I feel attached to any of these characters. Theses a lot of characters in this movie played by big name actors, but I just wished it was written and executed better.
The first half of the movie didn't really know what it wanted to be. It was very scatted as it goes back and forward showing what Joys family life was like. All of that is trying to do some character development or just to flesh out her character, but I wish those flashbacks had a purpose in the rest of the story, as I felt it was thrown in there.
Overall "Joy" isn't a bad movie, I mean Jennifer Lawrence basically saves this movie from getting a much lower rating from me. The movie looked good, it was well shot at times and even when I didn't like the characters in the movie, I still thought the actors where good. I wanted to like this movie but sadly, it was a mess.