Thursday, February 18, 2016

Jennifer Lawrence is a Strong Presence in "Joy"


The first time I saw the trailer for Joy, I honestly had no idea what it was about biut it did have the holy trinity of Jennifer Lawrence, director David O. Russell and Bradley Cooper (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook) so it was worth checking out.

After a few more trailers and some research I found out that Joy is a rag-to-riches, autobiographical movie about inventor Joy Mangano, who created her own empire through her inventions, specifically the 'Miracle Mop' (think Home TV Shopping products), of course with having to go through her own trials and tribulations. 



Jennifer Lawrence's performance is the only joy in 'Joy', as the movie goes on, you can almost 'see' her carry the whole weight of the film on her pretty shoulders; ironically, this is what the character goes through in the movie as well, carrying the weight of her troubled, overbearing family. 

When the audiences meet Joy, she is a struggling divorced mother of two, who is also caring for her soap-opera obsessed mother (Virgina Madsen) and her caring grandmother (Diane Ladd, who also narrates the story). As if, this is not a lot on her plate already, Joy's divorced husband (Edgar Ramirez) is living in the basement and to make matters worse, her father (Robert De Niro) just gets dropped off by his now ex-girlfriend at Joy's door step. 

Barely making ends meet, Joy is already at her wit's end in trying to keep their old house from falling apart and from trying to keep her family from killing each other. In a moment of inspiration, Joy taps into her creative self, which she seems to have forgotten and invents a non-wringing mop. 

What follows is the challenges and risks she took in order to fulfill her dreams. 


My take away from the movie, would be the interesting world of patents (really, that was one of the things that kept me interested) and how having a good lawyer to give you sound advice is always a good idea. I was also surprised as to what goes behind those Home TV Shopping episodes. I swear, I will never look at Home TV Shopping the same way again. 

I must also applaud the choice in songs for the film, most especially The Rolling Stones' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and the Bee Gee's 'To Love Somebody' (both of which, I heard in the trailers). 

The film drags on, much to the audience's discomfort but what has them staying is their investment in Joy, they want her to succeed, they want Cinderella to marry the prince and after so many complications, legal, financial and even within the family, Joy does succeed (in a really bad ass way, I might add) but what follows is a rushed ending that feels all over the place. It was the ending that I liked least in the whole film, suffice to say. 

7 out of 10 stars, "Joy" has a simple enough plot to keep audiences engaged and developing empathy for Lawrence is easy, because she's Jennifer Lawrence but everything else falls out of place and its as if Director David O. Russell is grasping at straws to keep the movie together. 

The fact that its Jennifer Lawrence on the screen and that she's actually very good (she did win the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Comedy or Musical) for her role in Joy) and that it's a adapted from actual events makes things a little bit more interesting.

Joy is now showing in cinemas, from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.  



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