Lacked that "Silver Lining"

Rating: 5/10 (5 January 2016)

The wife's choice, but I was down with it. Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook) as an entrepreneurial struggling mother, with Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper in support among others. That'll do.
The start's full of promise. The opening 10 minutes do not mess about: you meet almost all characters of note, get a good feel for the situation and best of all it's just charming. Fun.
Unfortunately, Joy lost me before its finale.
I'd compare it to a tag-team match at the wrestling. They've all got the same premise: one of the good guys gets stranded in the ring, struggling for a while before he finally manages to tag in the stronger good guy for the happy ending.
Unfortunately, Jennifer Lawrence as Joy took one too many hits before we reached a happy ending. I'd stopped caring. My wife put some laundry away.
It's not J-Law's fault, it's just a top-heavy film. Where you look at the likes of Ali or even Forrest Gump (I know, they're lame comparisons, but bear with me), the chronology is nice and spread. With Joy, there are too many slow portions that take up time the finale sorely needed.
The truth is you just aren't drawn in effectively enough. De Niro is surprisingly underused as Joy's father, he could've really added some depth here. Without wishing to compare to director David O. Russell's previous work, this piece is sorely missing the frequent smiles induced by Silver Linings Playbook.
A lot of the relationships aren't believable either, critical for a biopic. Take Lawrence's titular character and Bradley Cooper's Neil. They err from friends to enemies to friends again too quickly: you don't have enough time to empathize, enough time to feel anything, before the scenario switches. He appears in a closing scene, the dialogue so forced it's cringe-worthy.
The ending feels rushed too. Avoiding spoilers, the film develops towards a conclusion where Joy outfoxes some Texan businessmen. In between consecutive scenes, Joy goes from naive and fragile to a bona fide business bad-ass. It's missing that growth; which would've reinforced the meaning of this film.
There are things to like though. A collections of scenes mid-film, where Joy is introduced to television shopping networks are particularly fun. There's enough about Joy, and particularly Lawrence's performance, to justify the admission fee.
The movie begins with a dedication to the brave women (especially one) that inspired the film.
I don't like knocking anyone, particularly those big enough to take on a film like this, but inspiration is perhaps the one thing truly missing. I'm sorry to say that it has been replaced by apathy. I would still recommend this film.