David O. Russell has got himself quite a trio of regular actors that any director would be proud to anchor his cinematic ensemble. They first appeared in Silver Linings Playbook and now Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper are back in a Russell film in Joy. Of course, Cooper and Lawrence set sparks flying in American Hustle. They have a different kind of rapport in Joy where Cooper plays Neil Walker, an executive at QVC who puts Lawrence’s title character on the air to shuck her Miracle Mop in the unbelievable and inspiring true story.
In hindsight, Russell is an interesting choice to bring the single mom who overcame the odds tale to the big screen. His style of filmmaking is brash and in your face and we have adored his work since first discovering him with Three Kings. Yet, another helmer might have brought more joy to Joy… more on that later.
We meet Joy Mangano when she’s at her wit’s end. She has her ex-husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez) living in her basement, her mother (Virginia Madsen) living in an upstairs bedroom and she’s trying her best to raise her children on the salary of an airline counter worker. Suddenly, her never-hides-his-opinions father shows up, having been kicked out of his latest girlfriend’s house and insists on moving into the basement that he now has to share with his less-than-favorite-ex-son-in-law.
One day, inspiration strikes while cleaning up a broken glass. There has to be a way to ring out a mop without getting your hands dirty or worse, cutting them on shards of glass — enter the Miracle Mop. How she goes from idea to American success story is the crux of the film Joy, but at its heart, this is the story of a family and dysfunctional as it is, it is the key to how Mangano made it to the top. It was never easy, but with her father’s help (and his girlfriend’s, played brilliantly by Isabella Rossellini) and even her ex-husband, they pull together to make Joy (and thus the family’s) dreams come true.
As we saw Russell do with Silver Linings Playbook, the helmer is kind of a wizard at telling stories about families that are less than Rockwellian. And Lord knows he is a master at getting the best out of his cast (Lawrence won an Oscar for her work on Silver Linings Playbook and Cooper was nominated and both were nominated for American Hustle). It is no different with Joy.
Lawrence is the reason to see this film. She rivets on every frame and if the Academy nominates her for her third straight Russell film (which we expect them to do), might we suggest the scene where she first appears on QVC as the moment to show off her “moment” in the film. She astounds. She compels and Lawrence also pulls at our heartstrings. Her mother is trying to keep it together and simultaneously do something extraordinary that will take her family from living paycheck to paycheck to living in the penthouse.
De Niro is equally as powerful. The moment he arrives in the house, early in the film, the audience ha a moment akin to when Martin Sheen arrived on the scene in that very first The West Wing. It is that explosive. This time out, Cooper is much more subtle than he was in his previous two Russell films, but that is what the character calls for. He and Lawrence, again, have great chemistry and we hope they continue making movies together.
The thing is, Joy is missing a little something. It’s hard to put a finger on it. Yet, if you had said that the story of the inventor of the Miracle Mop was going to be told by the guy who brought us American Hustle, I’d say that was a crazy pairing. It works, but not quite as well as we would have hoped.
There’s an emotional disconnect that happens at a certain point that some other helmer could have made. Some have suggested that a female director would have been a better choice. We’re not sure that is the answer. It’s just in terms of what stories are in Russell’s wheelhouse, Joy is not quite it… but just barely. The film is still quite a Joy.
Grade: B