He's done it again. David O. Russell taps Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Bradlee Cooper, and assorted sidekicks to concoct a movie with a four-star dysfunctional family that makes me feel so much better about my own. JOY is the story of a spunky girl who graduated high school at the top of her class, got accepted into a fancy college, and took a detour to another life when her parents divorced. She married the wrong guy, had two kids fast, divorced the guy, and moved back home with her mother (Virginia Masden) and a doting grandmother (Diane Ladd). Oh, and Joy's ex-husband hangs out in the basement until he can get his music career going. If that isn't enough of a premise, the estranged father (Robert DeNiro) gets kicked out by his girlfriend and lands back in this animal house to drive everyone more crazy than they already are.
As a child, Joy created her own miniature cutout buildings and fences, and now she has an idea for a new mop that can be manufactured in her dad's auto repair shop. Her creation proves far superior to anything on the market, because it's much more absorbent, you never have to touch the mop fibers that soak up nasty spills, and you can easily wring it out by sliding a handle up and down the pole. When Joy demos her mop to shoppers in a store parking lot, they walk past her without even a nod. Despite a series of disappointments and setbacks, she perseveres and eventually discovers QVC, the new TV shopping network, and is on her way. A few twists and turns like bankruptcy and extortion are down the road, but they can't stop her. For the books, to date, the real Joy Mangano has acquired more than one hundred patents for household items.
The energy and acting chops of the cast feed the family frenzy, hilarious one minute and heartbreaking the next. Jennifer Lawrence in the title role captures the steel determination of the single-mother entrepreneur who doggedly pursues every lead and overcomes every failure to show the naysayers what a mop can do. One of the more dramatic scenes depicts Joy flying cross-country to hunt down a manufacturer in another state and demand payment for atrocious over charges and patent theft. Diane Ladd delivers as the sympathetic grandmother who always knew Joy would make something of herself, in contrast to Dad, who reminds Joy she'll never amount to anything. Bradley Cooper's character is the QVC sales guru who swoops in long enough to tell Joy it didn't work on TV, sorry. But even he has to step aside when she insists she's the one to sell her own mop, not some paid talent they put in front of the camera who had no idea what to do with it. In the most poignant scene in the film, Joy freezes as the camera rolls for live television. No spoilers here.
A 25-year-old, Louisville, Kentucky girl, Jennifer Lawrence continues to amaze. Her embodiment of roles is astonishing, from Winter Bone (still have to see it) which won her an Oscar nod, to Silver Linings Playbook (best actress awards), and American Hustle (best supporting actress awards). As Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Lawrence catapulted all of us into another stratosphere based on the dystopian Young Adult series.
Her gifts shine again in JOY. Lucky us to to witness the talent.
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