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Film Review - Joy...
Dec. 28th, 2015 07:12 pmSaw the film Joy today. This is the latest David O. Russell film, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Deniro, Isabella Rosselini, Bradley Cooper and Edgar Ramirez. It hasn't gotten good reviews and an actress friend of mine, who was on the nominating committee of the SAG Awards this year -- considered it awful.
It's not quite that bad. But it doesn't quite live up to Russell's previous two films, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle in either depth or entertainment.
Joy is the true story of Joy Mangano, the woman who created the Miracle Mop. And it's an uphill struggle to get that Mop marketed, created and distributed. Everyone except for her Grandmother, daughter, and ex-husband is against her - telling her that it won't be successful and she's an idiot for trying. Joy manages to convince her father's rich girlfriend (portrayed by Isabella Rosellini) to invest in her idea -- but with the caveat that Joy put up half the money, and allow her to do a patent search to ensure no one else had created the Miracle Mop. As a result, a guy in Texas takes Joy for a bit of a ride, and her father (Deniro) and half-sister, inadvertently help him driving her towards bankruptcy. The story is how she rises up against all odds and makes it work -- becoming a multi-millionaire with multiple patents.
The story reminded me a little of Steve Jobs - in that it's about a creator who has come up with a great idea but they can't get anyone to believe in it - and everyone around them keeps trying to foist their ideas or their needs instead. Except, Joy is portrayed as a much nicer person than Steve Jobs (possibly because she's one of the co-producers of the film while Jobs was dead) who doesn't forsake those around her.
Of the two films, Steve Jobs is far and away the better one - better written, acted, directed, and constructed. Joy felt a wee bit too much like the Made for Lifetime Bio-Pic about the young gal with a great idea who overcomes great odds.
Russell clearly meant for the film to be more than that - since the film starts with a scene from a soap opera that he created specifically for the film.
Joy's mother watches soap operas incessantly. She sits alone in her room, hidden from the world, and escapes into the world of her soap.
Real soap opera actors were hired to play the roles - Susan Lucci, in particular was in all the scenes, along with Laura Wright from General Hospital. And the soap opera is about a woman (blond Laura Wright who looks a bit like Crystal Carrington from Dynasty) attempting to get her deed back from a man who is browbeating her -- much in the same way the Joy feels trapped and beaten down. Lucci in the soap, is a reflection of Isabella Rosselini...who tells Wright, a reflection of Joy, that she should use force - a gun.
And in the background, guns are seen but not used. Except for target practice. So there's an undercurrent of violence or a veiled threat of violent.
But Joy, herself never succumbs. She finds another way to handle her problems.
I found it disappointing - I expected more tidbits from the soap opera they'd created for the movie and a bit slow in places and frustrating in others.
That said? It passes the Alison Bechdel test with flying colors - the test in which two women share a scene and don't just talk about men all the time. And the relationships central to the film are Joy's friendship with her grandmother, young daughter, and best bud, Jackie, without whom she wouldn't have been able to do some of the things she did. The women in this film are better portrayed than the men. And you want to kick her father --- Deniro...pretty much plays the same role he's played in various other flicks. It didn't stand out.
Not amongst Lawrence or Russell's best efforts.
It's not quite that bad. But it doesn't quite live up to Russell's previous two films, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle in either depth or entertainment.
Joy is the true story of Joy Mangano, the woman who created the Miracle Mop. And it's an uphill struggle to get that Mop marketed, created and distributed. Everyone except for her Grandmother, daughter, and ex-husband is against her - telling her that it won't be successful and she's an idiot for trying. Joy manages to convince her father's rich girlfriend (portrayed by Isabella Rosellini) to invest in her idea -- but with the caveat that Joy put up half the money, and allow her to do a patent search to ensure no one else had created the Miracle Mop. As a result, a guy in Texas takes Joy for a bit of a ride, and her father (Deniro) and half-sister, inadvertently help him driving her towards bankruptcy. The story is how she rises up against all odds and makes it work -- becoming a multi-millionaire with multiple patents.
The story reminded me a little of Steve Jobs - in that it's about a creator who has come up with a great idea but they can't get anyone to believe in it - and everyone around them keeps trying to foist their ideas or their needs instead. Except, Joy is portrayed as a much nicer person than Steve Jobs (possibly because she's one of the co-producers of the film while Jobs was dead) who doesn't forsake those around her.
Of the two films, Steve Jobs is far and away the better one - better written, acted, directed, and constructed. Joy felt a wee bit too much like the Made for Lifetime Bio-Pic about the young gal with a great idea who overcomes great odds.
Russell clearly meant for the film to be more than that - since the film starts with a scene from a soap opera that he created specifically for the film.
Joy's mother watches soap operas incessantly. She sits alone in her room, hidden from the world, and escapes into the world of her soap.
Real soap opera actors were hired to play the roles - Susan Lucci, in particular was in all the scenes, along with Laura Wright from General Hospital. And the soap opera is about a woman (blond Laura Wright who looks a bit like Crystal Carrington from Dynasty) attempting to get her deed back from a man who is browbeating her -- much in the same way the Joy feels trapped and beaten down. Lucci in the soap, is a reflection of Isabella Rosselini...who tells Wright, a reflection of Joy, that she should use force - a gun.
And in the background, guns are seen but not used. Except for target practice. So there's an undercurrent of violence or a veiled threat of violent.
But Joy, herself never succumbs. She finds another way to handle her problems.
I found it disappointing - I expected more tidbits from the soap opera they'd created for the movie and a bit slow in places and frustrating in others.
That said? It passes the Alison Bechdel test with flying colors - the test in which two women share a scene and don't just talk about men all the time. And the relationships central to the film are Joy's friendship with her grandmother, young daughter, and best bud, Jackie, without whom she wouldn't have been able to do some of the things she did. The women in this film are better portrayed than the men. And you want to kick her father --- Deniro...pretty much plays the same role he's played in various other flicks. It didn't stand out.
Not amongst Lawrence or Russell's best efforts.