Arts
Women can fulfil their dreams
View(s):Review of David O. Russell’s movie “Joy”
In our day to day life, we hear of women struggling to achieve their dreams. Only a few succeed. Sometimes that success doesn’t mean happiness. In David O.Russell’s 2015 film “Joy”, Joy is a woman who faces chaos and still perseveres to fulfil her dreams.
The film is based on four women; Joy, a struggling, unemployed, divorced mother; Joy’s mother – a divorced, soap opera fan; a power supplier to Joy’s dreams -Joy’s grandmother; and Joy’s daughter, a little girl who supports her mother.
From beginning to end, the story is narrated by Joy’s grandmother “Mimi” –the person who has the foresight to realise that Joy’s future will be brighter. Her grandmother tells us that Joy is a gifted child who can invent anything she wants at the beginning of the movie.Even though, she dies in the middle of the movie her spirit remains in the story to narrate Joy’s life.
Joy’s mother has hidden herself from the outside world for 17 years after her divorce and inhabits the world of soap operas. Joy doesn’t want to end up like her mother.
Meanwhile, Joy’s daughter “Christie” is also helping her struggling mother and she is also there when her mother is humiliated in front of the people because of her revolutionary invention, the Miracle Mop.
The role of “ Joy” is excellently portrayed by Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, showing many different facets when facing betrayal,treachery and the trauma of love.
Director David O.Russell who has other hits to his credits like the Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle has assembled a great cast to portray this story. Russell has directed and written the plot, based on the real-life story of Joy Mangano born to Italian-American parents. Robert De Niro, another Academy Award winner and an Italian-American himself co-stars as Joy’s father. Russell has added the character of a half-sister for Joy who ends up a single mum with two children. In the real story Joy Mangano ends up with a divorce and struggles to pay the bills with her “three” children.
A “fun” fact is that the Miracle Mop which was Joy Mangano’s first successful invention was created the same year as actress Jennifer Lawrence was born (1990). But, the very first invention of the character was the “flea collar” which was mentioned in the movie too. There are other differences which make the viewer understand why the director introduces this movie as “half – fiction/drama/history” instead of calling it a “biopic” as one may expect.
Though the critics have panned the movie – metacritic giving it 58% and rotten tomatoes 59%, the film gained success with audiences by waking their emotions. It gives an important message to other women who are struggling to make their dreams a reality like “Joy”.
-Oshini Gunesekara