Before I get too deep into the review, I need to confess that my movie going experience was affected my outside factors. In fact the projector itself seemed so put off by the film that a half hour in the thing just shut off. The theater had to start it up again and ‘fast forward’ to the part where we left off. This isn’t a typical moviegoing experience, but it did make the movie memorable. Unfortunately, that is all that made the film memorable.
Joy is a story loosely based on the life of HSN star Joy Mangano, who you may know as the woman who invented the self-ringing mop. The woman herself appears to be an interesting figure, but as my partner pointed out, this movie seems more biographical of Jennifer Lawrence than Mangano. Hence, I suppose, the term loosely based.
One could say the film is loosely based on everything David Lynch ever wrote and directed (save eraser head. That was just ridiculous). The movie felt like someone trying to do a Lynch film and not actually being Lynch, which is a style that I am starting to suspect typifies David O. Russell. I Heart Huckabees, Anyone?
Lawrence and DeNiro headline a hard working cast that does what it can to inject something real into this drama, but most of it–even the always dope Elizabeth Rohm–seems like they are beating their heads against a wall, or a script in this instance.
I recommend seeing this movie. At home. On Bootleg. Or Lifetime. The redeeming quality of the film was that it stopped for a while, forcing the theater to give me free tickets to another film. I’ll review that one in this space soon…