One supposes "The Mop" wouldn't have been a suitable title

Rating: 4/10 (2 January 2016)

Just from having watched the trailer, I wasn't even sure what this film was about, and the shot of Lawrence firing the gun made me think it would be about her committing a crime of some sort, but it's a rags to riches story about Joy, who cannot even afford a surname, who invents a mop, ... goes through hell having it financed, manufactured, and sold, ... DeNiro was funny (especially when referring to his ex- wife as The Creature From The Black Lagoon), Bradley Cooper, fresh from his turn in the nearly as odd Burnt, and really needing a shave, injects a bit of life to the proceedings, in his 20 or so minutes of screen time, but the main plot was too odd, seeming like an infomercial about a mop, and a behind the scenes look at a home shopping network.
Not knowing when the story was taking place bothered me. At times it looked like 1970s or 1980s, but they mentioned 1995, which turned out to be only the price of the mop ($19,95) She is shown early on working for Eastern Airlines, who went under in the early '90s, so it is sometime before then, obviously. The suits Cooper wears seem like 1970s, but some of Lawrence's clothes look more like 1990s.
Everything was narrated by the grandmother, who dies 2/3 of the way into the film, returns at the end for a final recap for some reason.