David O. Russell is what you might call a “fondue pot” director. All he really does is take pre-existing genres and dunk them, whole, into his own particular brand of chocolate. He took a conventional boxing story like The Fighter and focused more on quirky characters. He took a trite romantic comedy like Silver Linings Playbook and focused more on quirky characters. He took a very standard con artist story like American Hustle and focused more on quirky characters.
When you have a hammer everything sure does look like a nail, and when you have a fondue pot you start to going a little crazy. You start to wonder if every single thing in the universe tastes better with chocolate, and if you keep going long enough you’re bound to find out that sardines, for example, are an exception to the rule. I was one of those people who thought that American Hustle was a chocolate-covered sardine, so I was worried that continuing down this same path would lead Russell into even more unfortunate directions.
And sure enough, with Joy he is indeed doing the exact same thing all over again, but thank heavens for all of us, he’s found two great tastes that taste great together. Joy is the story of a divorced mom who invents a mop and conquers the world, which sounds pretty distinctive until you realize it’s just a standard rags-to-riches story. Russell adds quirk and off he goes, making a very entertaining, vaguely inspiring but mostly straightforward drama about believing in one’s self and the importance of family and so on and so forth.
20th Century Fox
It’s the kind of story that people like, even when they don’t like them. Entrepreneurs making good, families coming together, women taking charge… every single part of Joy seems custom-designed to not offend you, and every time the Russell’s film does take chances it takes the form of temporary, superficial schmaltz. Joy’s mother’s soap opera becomes a fantasy prison from which she must escape, and then she does. A shooting range next to Joy’s father’s business is an eccentric sound design choice until she needs to blow off some steam and/or do a misleading 2nd Amendment pose for the trailer.
The plot is as straightforward as it gets, even as Russell dips it in wackiness. Joy used to invent things, got distracted by marriage and child-rearing, but when she comes up with a new idea for a mop – which is, to be fair, a really great idea – nothing can stop her. She makes the danged thing, connives her father’s new girlfriend (Isabella Rosselini, great as always) into investing, and struggles to find a market. Then she discovers the wonderful world of home shopping networks, and then she discovers the woeful world of third act twists.
20th Century Fox
Like the climactic dance scene in Silver Linings Playbook (and the rest of Silver Linings Playbook for that matter), Joy plays all the clichés of its genre as straight as possible. It’s the characters who get to be cute, and Russell’s actors seem to love him for it. Jennifer Lawrence is energized beyond the point of rationality, to the point that she retroactively looks bored in all of her Hunger Games movies. Robert De Niro is a charmingly sloppy dad. Bradley Cooper is engagingly slick. Elizabeth Rohm is better than most of them, but she’s once again stuck in one of the smallest roles in Russell’s movie. You’d think after American Hustle she could have graduated.
David O. Russell’s formula may now be well-established and thuddingly obvious, but it works a lot of the time. It elevates conventional stories (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook) and brings down more complicated tales (American Hustle). Fortunately, Joy is the former. It’s a feel-good confection that, thanks to Russell’s whims, feels good in a different way than it normally would. David O. Russell has dipped a trifle in chocolate, and turned it into a truffle. As long as he stays away from those sardines, as far as I’m concerned he can keep the fondue pot.
Top Photo: 20th Century Fox
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
