Joy: when a good idea isn't enough
- Francesca Laura Cersosimo
- 29 gen 2016
- Tempo di lettura: 2 min
Joy by David O. Russel, at his third movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, doesn't really hit the target. Joy (Jennifer Lawrence), the movie alter-ego of Joy Mangano, lives with her grandmother, her divorced parents, her children and her ex-husband. She takes care of her family, having given up her calling to be an inventor. But when she gets the idea of the Miracle Mop, she pursues her dream with all of her strenghts, against all the difficulties.
Her dysfuntional family provides a very engaging setting in the beginning. And Russel puts a mirror in front of it, by having a TV constantly on, on a cheesy and illogical Soap Opera (with Susan Lucci and Laura Wright starring as main characters of this fake but funny show). Well, in Joy's family, reality is almost as complicated as fiction. There is a scene in which Russel captures the women's bewitched gaze at the preposterous Soap Opera. This makes the best angle on something that remains encrypted about women's nature. They are the ones dreaming, in this movie, and Joy must fight to make her dreams, or ideas, come true.
Still of Virginia Madsen, Jennifer Lawrence and Diane Ladd ©TM & ©2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Above: Still of Jennifer Lawrence ©TM & ©2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
The movie is completely focalised on Joy, a monolithic main character, on her desire to be fulfilled and on how she overcomes hardships on her way to success. But Joy's character is so preponderant that other characters are not developed at all, remaining one-dimensional. Sometimes the story seems confused, and one may have a hard time empathising with her.
During the movie, we are taken to a brief trip to TV marketing, led by Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper), an executive at QVC, who unfolds all the tricks, all the magic behind it. It is a pity that this world remains just a background to the formula that "in America, the ordinary meets the extraordinary every single day". Everybody can make it if they work hard enough and never stop believing. No need to say it, we have heard this before.
Still of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence ©TM & ©2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
So, sadly, the exceptional acting by Jennifer Lawrence is not enough to save the movie. Even though we must aknowledge Russel's effort to find new ways to present a biopic, and I personally like his resisting to clear genres. Simply, the story hasn't got that something that sticks to you.
Director: David O. Russel Writers: David O. Russel (screenplay), Annie Mumolo (story) Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Elisabeth Röhm, Susan Lucci, Laura Wright Year: 2015
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