We Finally Learned If Jennifer Lawrence Can Be in a Terrible Movie
David O. Russell's latest film, Joy, out today, begins with a dedication, a claim that it has been inspired "by stories of daring women everywhere." This is the first tip-off that what we are about to see is pure crap. It's like when you're at a dinner party and the cook comes out of the kitchen to say, "I've never made this before, but it's going to be delicious!" Russell wants you to know that his intentions are good. And I have no doubt that he's right. But Joy is a lousy, nearly unwatchable movie. Normally, such a common phenomenon wouldn't matter. But it is the product of the team that created American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, so we have certain expectations. It is a film starring Jennifer Lawrence that sucks. And I wasn't-we as a nation weren't-entirely sure that was possible.
The story is based on the true-life struggles and triumph of Joy Mangano, who invented the Miracle Mop when she was 34 years old and became one of the stars of the QVC Network. The film is bizarrely incoherent, both narratively and stylistically, and it draws some of the worst career performances from some of the greatest talents in the world-Robert De Niro, Virginia Madsen, Edgar Ramirez and Isabella Rossellini. Joy's story is a banal version of the traditional rags-to-riches narrative. Joy has an idea for a plastic mop-head, a classic "build a better mousetrap" piece of entrepreneurship. The rest is business. She has to borrow money from her family to begin producing it. She battles against parts manufacturers. She has to learn how to market things properly, and the triumphant moment of business-spoiler alert, I guess?-is a complex piece of patent infringement law being clarified at a stilted meeting in a Texas hotel. The whole thing amounts to one long episode of Shark Tank.
It occurred to me at one point that there was some complex ironic game being played here. Was Russell making a half-hidden horror movie about an honest service worker taking care of her family who ends up, through greed, selling the world millions of plastic doo-dads it doesn't need, then ending up in court with her family? It's too much to hope. Besides, the worst part of Joy is how little self-consciousness the film appears to have about its storyline or character. Barry Diller is spoken of, without the slightest irony, as a kind of god in this film. Kmart is spoken of like it was the Supreme goddamn Court.
Lawrence is in the middle of all this garbage, desperately trying to elicit every ounce of sympathy the world has to offer. Her character is all victim, all innocent pluck and nonsense. It's embarrassing to see her flail around in such material. She is the absolute rarest of actorly phenomena--capable of superb art house performances that elevate decent stories into unforgettable ones, as in Winter's Bone, and but also able to take pedestrian franchise fare and make it cheerfully watchable, as in the Hunger Games series. There really hasn't been a talent like hers in a generation. In the combination of pure skill, dedication to craft, sexual energy and charisma, she is reminiscent of a young Marlon Brando. Except in this movie.
Joy is a small film that will be forgotten the week after it opens. But it will at least leave behind some valuable information: Jennifer Lawrence is not so good that she can save anything. Now we know. It is possible for Jennifer Lawrence to be in a shitty movie.
