In an early scene in Joy , as we are introduced to the Mangano family, we see Jennifer Lawrence’s Joy spotting a yoghurt stain on the carpet in her mother’s room that both her mother and grandmother had not noticed. And before we realise it, she has cleaned it up with the first piece of cloth that she could get her hands on. Just a minute before, we had heard the word ‘doer’ being used to describe Joy by her mother, albeit in a slightly mocking way. And here we get a sample through the pettiest of domestic chores.
It encapsulates the spirit of the character who goes on to become one of America’s most famous businesswomen, whose entrepreneurial acumen is rooted in the basic concerns of a homemaker. She is the inventor of the alliteratively named products of American consumer culture: Miracle Mop with a self-wringing cotton and the Huggable Hangers that suddenly made a lot of space available in the consumers’ closets, among other things.
It’s an exciting real-life story that is great fodder for cinema: The journey of a divorced mother-of-two living with her dysfunctional family. The ‘Queen of Home Shopping’. The heights of the great American dream. So what does director David O Russell do with the material? He makes a coming-of-age film that takes us through the whole journey till she gets to the invention of her first product – the mop.
The idea of making a comedy-drama out of this seems suited to Russell, who got it right in his previous film, American Hustle . It has an ironic title and it flirts with absurdity by letting the viewers into a soap opera that Joy’s mother is obsessed with. But it feels more like a strangely ineffective worn-out drama.
The ensemble starts feeling like a bunch of quirky characters who never become human enough for us to really care for. Yes, there are interesting things going on there – Joy and her ex husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez), the voiceover tells us, are the best divorced couple in America. In another nice touch, Joy finds her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd) sitting next to her during her funeral.
But they never come together. The film’s focus is Joy. I liked Lawrence’s performance. She doesn’t miss a beat, playing the woman stuck between her family and her personal ambitions. But despite her best efforts, the film feels utterly devoid of energy.
When you already know the upward graph that the protagonist is going to undergo, you expect things to get shaken up a bit so that you are surprised, shocked. That just doesn’t happen with Joy.
Russell underplays the big dramatic moments – such as Joy’s breakthrough sales pitch on live television. But what’s the point if there is no emotional pay-off?
I’m sure Russell wanted to say something more than just "be yourself and follow your dreams". But Joy , sadly, bookends with a message as clichéd as that.
