Little joy for moviegoers in this Tale of Mrs Mop!

Rating: 5/10 (12 January 2016)

If you think the story of a woman whose claim to fame is that she invented a 'miracle mop' and made millions selling it via TV shopping channels sounds a poor basis for a movie, watching Joy will do little to change your opinion. Despite its claims, there is little that is 'inspirational' or even particularly interesting about Joy Mangano's progress from schoolgirl to 'matriarch', at least as portrayed in this quasi-biopic.
The film starts interestingly by thrusting the viewer into a 1980s (? - it could have been 1950s) TV soap. At this point I thought Joy would perhaps be a comedic satire on the inanities of American consumerism. With a few tweaks it could have become just that and how much more interesting and challenging that would have been.
The quirky opening note rapidly fades. We soon discover that Joy's story is going to be told by her granny, a prospect that does not bode well if you are looking for gritty realism and objectivity. Since granny dies halfway through the film, we then realise that the whole thing is being narrated from beyond the grave. Poignant? No, spooky and sentimental at best. From there on the plot lumbers along conventional channels to its predetermined conclusion.
As the movie progresses it becomes more leaden, especially when we encounter the head of a TV shopping channel (Bradley Cooper). He comes across as a stereotypical corporate carthorse, who truly believes that pulling his telly-shopping cart is a higher calling. When Joy succeeds, at the second attempt, in presenting her miracle mop to the World on live TV and the sales indicator goes ballistic, the studio erupts with an ovation reminiscent of the one in Mission Control when the Apollo 11 astronauts touched down on the Moon. Hey guys, calm down - it's just a mop! If Joy's triumph seems a bit too good to be true, the credibility of the ensuing story is not enhanced by demonstrations of very poor business acumen on both her and her advisers parts. She would have got nowhere on Dragon's Den! When later Joy discovers she has been double-crossed in her business dealing by a most improbable circumstance, we begin to wonder if granny has got her facts straight.
One has to conclude that this rather unexciting movie is basically a star vehicle for Jennifer Lawrence. Visually, fans will not be disappointed as she is displayed in numerous full-length shots and close-ups. But the role has too little meat in it to demand much of Lawrence in the way of acting. Robert de Niro, reprising his Jack Byrnes (Meet the Fockers) character, brings some bright moments to the proceedings, not least with a very funny wedding speech. But the occasional humour sits uneasily with the serious intent of the movie to tell an uplifting tale of a woman's successful struggle against adversity.
Unless you think American consumer culture really is something to get worked up over, it may prove difficult to be fully engaged by the inspirational tone of Joy. That aside, there is little here to lift this movie above the ordinary. Talk of awards and even Oscars seems wholly misplaced; one critic even describes Joy as on a par with the Hollywood classics. No wonder they say you should never believe what you read in the papers - nor what you see on the tele-shopping channels!
Viewed at HOME (successor to the Cornerhouse), Manchester, UK, 10 January 2016.