Joy

Based on a true story, Joy follows Jennifer Lawrence’s title character as she attempts to make something of herself by developing an easy-to-use-and-clean mop – with the film detailing the impact that Joy’s ongoing efforts has on her various family members (including Robert De Niro’s Rudy, Diane Ladd’s Mimi, and Édgar Ramírez’s Tony). It’s perhaps not surprising to note that Joy contains an almost unreasonable emphasis on the protagonist’s thoroughly dysfunctional home life, as director David O. Russell leans hard on his continuing (and hopelessly tedious) obsession with squabbling family members – with the early part of the proceedings consisting, for the most part, of nothing more than a series of arguments and fights among the main characters. The aggressively unpleasant atmosphere is exacerbated by a series of underwhelming performances (ie Lawrence is clearly miscast as the central character) and Russell’s typically garish directorial choices – with, in terms of the latter, the movie suffering from a series of elements that prove more distracting than anything else. (There is, for example, an recurring bit involving a televised soap opera that’s nothing short of disastrous.) The nigh unwatchable vibe persists right up until Joy begins developing the aforementioned mop, with the character’s dealings with various business-oriented figures ensuring that, at the very least, the film’s second half is interesting. Bradley Cooper’s appearance as a home-shopping-network producer perpetuates Joy‘s decent-second-half feel, although, predictably, Russell essentially renders the improved atmosphere moot with a dull and virtually endless climactic stretch – which, it goes without saying, confirms the picture’s place as just another misbegotten endeavor from a seriously lackluster filmmaker.

** out of ****