Joy Movie Review, no spoilers – well, maybe some.
Joy is the story of Joy Mangano, the woman who invented the Miracle Mop. It probably goes without saying, this is a chick flick. When we got to the AMC theater at Southdale in Edina, there was a bit of a line of all women waiting to enter the theater. I don’t know that any men were in the theater for that showing. There was a baby, one who cried for most of the second act, it was probably a boy.
Stellar Cast
Getting back to the movie. Joy looked like a good movie, the trailer was captivating, if not a little misleading. Joy is played by Jennifer Lawrence, Joy’s father is played by Robert DeNiro. The father’s character is played by Isabella Rossellini and Joy’s mother is played brilliantly by Virginia Madsen. Bradley Cooper plays some guy at QVC, but that is inconsequential because he isn’t in much of the movie and his role isn’t particularly interesting. He and Jennifer Lawrence have little of their past chemistry.
Interesting Story
What is interesting is the family dynamic – which is mostly fictional. In the movie Joy is the one who keeps the family together against everyone’s attempt, but hers, to break it apart. Some people would call her an enabler while others would call her crazy for putting up with the family she’s been given.
The story is centered around Joy’s invention of, and eventual success in, selling her Miracle Mop on QVC. Currently she is on HSN selling her mop if you’d like to catch the real thing. It’s an interesting story and could have been told better than it was in this movie.
It Was OK
The movie wasn’t bad, I just had higher expectations with the stellar cast. And the cast were all great in their roles, most of them just played horrible characters.
The movie was uneven at best. It had some interesting elements to it but they never quite caught on. Virginia Madsen’s character, Terry, is a fascinating character. She is Joy’s mother who has apparently been stuck since her divorce from Joy’s father. She lives in the living room of Joy’s home and spends her day in bed watching soap operas. I can relate to this woman as my mother spent most of my childhood in the living room watching soap operas. I could related to that kind of craziness and Virginia Madsen played her brilliantly. When Joy’s father moves into the basement, where Joy’s ex husband is already living there, it could have gotten interesting but they never really did much with it.
English: Actor Edgar Ramirez at the Domino film press conference. Photo by: Vera Anderson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He’s Worth Watching
Édgar Ramírez, who plays Joy’s ex husband, is really the best reason to watch this movie. He’s just really hot. He may be a fine actor, but I wouldn’t know because I could only focus on how beautiful he is. He plays one of the few likable characters in the movie, someone who actually cares about Joy. The story is interesting and if you’d like to learn more about Joy’s story you can read it here.
The movie was intended to be inspirational and on that point it hit, it just hit heavy handed in some areas.
Joy is more like Silver Linings Playbook than it is American Hustle, even if it has the same cast. It was an entertaining movie, but one you might prefer watching from your couch rather than in a theater.
Have you seen Joy, what did you think?
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