Review: Joy

What to make of Joy, a work in which director David O. Russell buries a very good film under a mountain of nonsense and a maelstrom of babbling neurotic dysfunction? Joy features a gloriously brassy and fearless performance from his muse, Jennifer Lawrence, who is utterly fearsome in her ferocity. It also contains an excellent supporting turn from Russell's other muse, Bradley Cooper, who very nearly runs away with the movie. There is not one weak link in Russell's deep roster of talent, including Robert De Niro, Isabella Rossellini, Virginia Madsen, Elisabeth Röhm, Édgar Ramírez, and Diane Ladd. But Joy is an absolute mess and there's nothing Lawrence, Cooper, or any of the actors can do to disguise it.

Russell's intention to loosely adhere to the facts of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano's (Lawrence) life, not to mention tonal coherence and narrative clarity, is revealed by the opening moments which lurchingly segues from a deliberately ludicrous soap opera scene (featuring Emmy-winning luminaries of the medium such as Laura Wright, Maurice Benard, and the unsinkable Susan Lucci) to a title card announcing the film as inspired by true stories of daring women, one in particular whose tale will be told by her grandmother, Mimi (Diane Ladd).

The storybook narration and ensuing scenes would seem to posit as a type of Cinderella, a goodhearted dreamer surrounded by bickering naysayers. This is no regular fairytale princess, however, for Joy decisively declares that she needs no prince to fulfill her dreams in life. Life does not always go as planned as the adult Joy realises when she wonders what has happened to her life and the dreams she used to have.

This is what has happened: her mother Terry (Madsen) has sequestered herself in the comfort nest of her bedroom, dealing with the aftermath of her divorce by escaping into the world of soap operas; her father Rudy (De Niro) isn't any better off, shuffling from one woman to another before settling into a romantic affiliation with an Italian widow named Trudi (Rossellini), who guards her late husband's finances like an overprotective lioness; her ex-husband Tony (Édgar Ramírez) is living in her basement and still dreaming about being the next Tom Jones; and her sister Peggy (Röhm) is a bitter woman who has nothing but discouraging words for Joy. Joy has deferred her dreams to preside over this crazy, calamitous clan and now it is time for her to rediscover what she is capable of after a dream in which her young self says that they've been in hiding for so long that they have even been hidden from themselves.

Where Joy genuinely soars is during Joy's efforts to introduce her new product, the self-wringing, super-absorbent Miracle Mop, to a parade of unconvinced individuals beginning with Trudi, who begrudgingly provides her with the capital, to Neil Walker (Cooper), an executive for the relatively new TV network QVC. Every scene in which Cooper appears is arresting, not only because of his supremely confident portrayal and natural chemistry with Lawrence, but because his scenes comprise the film Joy should have been. To watch Joy persuade Walker of her product's potential; to observe as he tours her around the QVC headquarters with its pristine test rooms, rotating soundstage, and the beehive of behind-the-scenes maneuverings; and to finally see Joy triumph and come into her own as her love and passion for her creation reaches thousands of television viewers is to experience a harmonious fusion of serio-screwball, modern woman's picture, and rousing rags-to-riches tale of self-fulfillment.

Alas, that glittering promise of a film is barely seen again as Russell piles on more familial discord and reversals of fortune. The director applies the same rambunctious energy here that he used in American Hustle, but it comes off as ramshackle, unfocused and mere narrative spackle. It's surely a sign of something adrift when four editors are credited and the resulting film is slack and almost shapeless.

Joy

Directed by: David O. Russell

Written by: David O. Russell

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Édgar Ramírez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco, Susan Lucci, Laura Wright, Maurice Benard, Donna Mills, Ken Howard, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Melissa Rivers