Plain boring and horrendous

Rating: 2/10 (27 December 2015)

I started watching this movie with high hopes considering it was the work of David O. Russell (who has made some great movies) and highly praised stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro (my favorite actor of all time), and Bradley Cooper. Unfortunately, after the first thirty minutes or so I lost all my hope... it seemed like a childish movie made by an amateur film-maker!
The script was utterly immature. The main message of the movie was female empowerment, a cause worthy of fighting for and to which I say kudos; however, it was represented in the most childish way. Let me give you an example: "You are going to grow up and be a strong, smart young woman. Go to school meet a fine, young man. Have beautiful children of your own. And you're gonna build wonderful things that you do in your room." Sounds like an advice a 14-year-old, obnoxious, recently-turned-feminist girl would give!
Furthermore, the story was completely disoriented and difficult to follow. One doesn't even know how time passes in the movie! I mean after Joy grows up there's clearly some significant passage of time, judging from some of the major occurrences (for instance grandmother dying, etc.), yet the movie gives absolutely no information about it. I was also bothered when the narrator of the story died in the middle of the story, nevertheless still miraculously narrated the events after her death... this is what I call 'posthumous narration' -- yep, seems legit!
The directing was so horrendous it gave me a freaking migraine! Very rarely one can find a scene in this movie in which the camera is actually stable. I don't oppose to a fluent type of camera movement but in this case it was a continuous, subtle, yet super annoying jerky motion that went on and on and on...
Moreover, there are certain scenes in which the acting is incredibly fake. For example, the scene in which Joy walks out of the garage just before releasing her anger by shooting -- never seen this fake of an acting from Jennifer Lawrence before. (I kind of think it's a directing problem though, considering the high level acting Jennifer Lawrence can perform, the director could have and should have repeated that scene)
In conclusion, the movie was disappointingly weak and boring. I certainly do not recommend it.