Clean up on aisle...bring the mop!

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2016)

Sometime you win and sometimes you lose. Sometimes life just doesn't play out the way you had it planned. Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence), as a child, had one of those wide open minds that let her invent things to function in her fantasy world. Life is not always fair; after her parent's divorce, Joy became the caregiver of a very dysfunctional family. Eventually the housewife ends up with her ex-husband living in the house and being joined by her disgruntled father. Trying to build a better world for herself, she struggled being beaten down after a string of failed ideas. After ten years of trying to mass-market the revolutionary floor mop she invented, Joy finally strikes gold via QVC. The attractive housewife personally pitches her product to a nation of TV shoppers. The "Hail Mary" performance produced a miracle...the Miracle Mop!
Director David O. Russell's kinetic style is bogged down at times with wordy sequences and meanders a bit with what some critics consider an overly long script. However, Miss Lawrence excels as the champion of this project. JOY brings hope and inspiration in the will to succeed and survive in life.
Outstanding cast that also features: Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Edgar Ramirez, Elisabeth Rohm and Isabella Rossellini. Also appearing are: Dascha Polanco, Susan Lucci, Donna Mills and Ken Howard.