Terrific Performances, but Lacks Compassion and a Truly Engaging Story,

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2016)

Joy is a good movie with a reasonably well developed storyline and an outstanding cast. It's an enjoyable film that follows the life of Joy Mangano, an entrepreneur who rises to fame after her invention of the miracle mop, the films dosen't take place after she makes it big, but focuses on the struggle and hard work she had to go through in order to make it in to the big league. The performances are terrific and honestly deserved a better movie, Jennifer Lawrence shines in the lead role and she is joined by an outstanding supporting cast that includes Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Virginia Madsen, Elisabeth Röhm and Édgar Ramírez. The style of the film is very strange, there are parts that feel like a normal drama, other bits that are comedic, there were even dream sequences that came across as weird and sinister, the director's approach to the whole thing felt uncertain, he clearly wanted it to be different from a regular biography film, but I think it would have been better off keeping it normal. I will admit I've come to expect more from David O. Russell and his usual cast, there is a certain standard he has brought us from his work, such as the Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, and this movie certainly dosen't deliver, mostly because of the lack of relationship between the main character with others. There's a clear bond between Micky with several people in the Fighter, as there is with Pat in Silver Linings, but here Joy's relationship with every other character is never fully established, we know how she gets along with her mother, father, grandmother, ex- husband and so on, but because she never really had enough scenes with any of them all of the characters, including Joy, never become truly compelling, and it makes the overall story much less engaging, I never found myself truly caring for anything tragic that happened to them. A well acted film that is jam packed with flaws, Joy is an enjoyable film that is worth the watch if you ever see it on television or Netflix, but you certainly shouldn't go out of your way to see it, unless you're a die hard Jennifer Lawrence fan.
Follows the struggles Joy Mangano went through to get her own invention on the market.
Best Performance: Jennifer Lawrence