A great movie for all feminists

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2016)

Joy is Jennifer Lawrence, nothing joyful about her life. The movie is actually about her struggles, about how everyone, including her family is trying to bring her down and how she copes with it. Because she is brilliant. Only her grandmother understands and knows that Joy is destined for greatness. If only Joy believed that herself.
The movie starts slow but picks up steam once Joy makes her first invention – The Magic Mop or that's what it is called in India. Now we love the magic mop here – especially my generation of women who are working and don't have too much time. Most of us have help in cleaning our houses but even the maids don't want to take pains to hand mop the house. Enter Magic Mop and its thousand variations. The easy way to clean the house. And to get to know that it was invented by a woman was just pure Joy.
Anyways, back to the movie. Joy has always been a creator unlike others in her family. At one point in time she is just so fed up of her life that she designs this mop. She draws it herself, does the first prototype herself and even gets a shot at selling her product at QVC. But nothing goes well for her. Without spoiling it for you, I would just say that all's well that ends well. She becomes the matriarch who supports her entire family once she becomes successful. It is loosely based on Joy Mangano who created the mop and it seems holds over 100 patents. Fascinating story hers as well. But that's for another blog.
Jennifer Lawrence according to me has done better in this kind of disturbed and a little crazy character. I liked her much better in Silver Linings Playbook or even American Hustle where the kind of crazy is at a different level. Realized that Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper are constant features in some of her best work – well they make a good team though Bradley Cooper and De Niro don't really share scenes in this one.
Lawrence is more subdued in this, more controlled somehow that was a little unsettling. Some of the scenes and plot twists were also a little unbelievable for me. But having said all of this, a very enjoyable movie. Like I said, give me a movie with a female lead and I will lap it up. So this review may be a little biased from that perspective.