Joy - Film Reflections

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2016)

Joy embraces you with a warm hug swiftly stabbing you in the back with a hidden, unnerving, plot. Jennifer Lawrence (Joy) performs at ever soaring heights with no sign of plateau. Ms. Lawrence's co-stars are drawn to her on-screen, regardless of the scene context. Even when Joy's character is berated, her energy radiates through the screen, into your core.
Joy has a natural pace, and the time floats by as it does at an enjoyable family holiday. The potential drudgery of a tale of cynical iterations of plotted personal, and financial, destruction of a character, can destroy a film; however, these characteristics only build the audience's suspense; owed solely to Lawrence's dynamic and authentic emotional range, and Mr. McKay's whimsical directorial style.
Bradley Cooper (Neil Walker) has a memorable on screen chemistry with Lawrence, and his ability to make us experience the unreadable, slightly affable qualities of Walker, are superb.
Robert De Niro (Rudy) wraps us in a hateful personality blanket; all tucked in are Isabella Rossellini (Trudy) and Elisabeth Röhm (Peggy). Together this threesome anchors the opposing force that Joy so majestically battles, with the help of her honorable, and decent, friends played by Edgar Ramirez (Tony) and Dacha Polanco (Jackie).
We come to the egg holding together her life meatloaf. Joy's daughter and grandmother. One inspires her, while one encourages her. All the while the narration, by Diane Ladd (Mimi), guides us through Joy's turmoil until her implosion, caused by the weight imposed on her, by plotting family, and business, forces.
The release of this bane, and the born phoenix that remains, is Lawrence's owned triumph. A work to behold. A scene to remember. The spark for which I watch films.