Readers note: I never give away plot endings, but I do write about the plot somewhat and discuss the movie generally. If you want to see it without knowing anything about it, stop here. Thanks.
David O. Russell’s latest film, Joy, out in theaters this week, lets you know immediately that is on the right side of women’s politics. It begins with a dedication, a statement that the film has been inspired by “stories of daring women everywhere.” Stories of daring women are hot in Hollywood these days, and that is a good thing, it made me and Maria eager to see this movie as soon as I could.
Nice try, but it is disappointing. Being politically correct, even righteous, does not, unfortunately, shield this very promising movie from the fact that it is a mess, poorly executed, strangely incoherent and long, draining and a depressing grind.
Joy had just about every reason there is to be good. Russell is highly regarded director – American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook – and he assembled a wonderful cast of gifted actors to work with – Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role as Joy, Robert DeNiro, Virginia Madsen, Edgar Ramirez and Isabella Rossolini.
The story is loosely based on the true story of Joy Mangano, who invented the “Miracle Mop” when she was 34 years old and became one of the stars of the then-revolutionary cable channel the QVC Network.
The story is a familiar and stirring one: woman goes from rags to riches, encounters every obstacle a human being can face short of a nuclear bomb being dropped on her head, and slugs her way up the business ladder.
She is confounded, betrayed, disappointed or stabbed in the back by a daunting assortment of bad guys, including her father, her bosses, her father’s girl friend, her step-sister, her mother, her ex-boy friend (who leaves the Dark Side to advise her), various lawyers, partners, police, parts manufacturers and the entire business world.
I don’t see how Wonder Woman herself could have made it through these storms and landmines, and they go on forever. The movie seemed to last the whole weekend. I don’t know how many times any actor can look so miserable, be so disappointed, humiliated and discouraged, take a deep breath and rally and still be standing. And all for a mop. Even Lawrence doesn’t have enough acting depth to keep us from getting depressed and dizzy.
The whole point of the movie is to show how a brave woman can survive in a man’s world, and that is a topic than can hardly be screwed up in our world – it is almost a universal story – but the movie managed to do it.
But there is no nobility in this movie. For all of Joy’s determination and courage in making her mop, she was nothing but a victim in her personal life. Just about everyone in her family seemed determined to do her in, from her soap-opera addicted mother, her lazy husband, her sabotaging father, his grasping woman friend, yet she never once found the strength to stand up to them, walk away from, cut her ties to them, find healthier people to support and nourish in her life.
While struggling to be brave almost in every scene of the movie, she almost never stopped being a victim. In this story, Mangano’s Miracle Mop should have brought tears, but mostly it just seemed disturbing.
The message of the movie to me seemed to be: fight as hard as you can to make money in the male-dominated world of business, but drown in one co-dependent relationship after another, especially if they involve your family. There is always a way round a business defeat, but we are stuck with our families forever, no matter how badly they treat us.
To the very end, Joy’s family does everything but set her on fire, and she accepts this wanton cruelty, abuse and treachery with a depressing resignation and passivity even as the film us supposed to be saluting daring women everywhere. Maria felt the same way, when she left the theater, she said she was bewildered. Why did she feel creepy and sad?
Almost from the first – especially since it is based on a well-known real personality – I figured Joy would keep on fighting to make her mops. But by the end, I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and say, “enough, these people are trying to kill you. Brave women everywhere have learned that they don’t have to accept being belittled, undermined and abused, just because members of their family are doing it.”
This bizarre dichotomy makes a laughingstock out of the movie’s many pretensions to being noble and righteous. It does not seem to me that this is an inspirational message: fight to the bitter end for money, but not at all for love, dignity and respect. I saw one review that said the movie amounts to one long episode of Shark Tank. That sounded right.
At times I felt I was watching a slo-mo horror movie, not a powerful tale of feminist redemption.
At the end of the movie, Lawrence looks more depressed and deflated than she ever did while fighting for her mop. And small wonder, she must have been exhausted from being depressed for so long in so many different ways and scenes. Yet another betrayal, a waste of a wonderful actress.
Sorry to say, I can’t recommend it. It is a lousy movie.