Joy

Director: David O. Russell
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 1.5

Rags-to-riches story based (loosely) on the life of Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) who lives in a home with her ex-husband (Édgar Ramírez), her estranged father (Robert DeNiro) and soap opera-obsessed mother (Virginia Madsen), works as an airline reservations manager and then, suddenly, comes up with the idea for the Miracle Mop (!) - it's machine washable! no touching the grime! - and pitches the idea to the head of home-shopping TV network QVC (Bradley Cooper). Russell's stylistic flourishes (enter: Susan Lucci!) do little to punch up the stale narrative - Joy is so relentless and unflappable it's never without doubt she will succeed no matter what obstacle is thrown at her (she improbably gets a tough Texas businessman to back down, her beloved grandmother passes away), so dramatic tension is all but non-existent. There is also little explanation of Mangano's creative process and no mention of her other inventions - what about those Huggable Hangers? - and rides primarily on Lawrence's charm. Full disclosure: we own a Miracle Mop and it basically works as advertised (if a bit over-priced).