Considering the talent involved, Joy should’ve been an easy homerun with a compelling story and top notch actors but instead it meanders in places, others don’t feel entirely cohesive and I just wasn’t all that enamored despite its high points.
Joy
(2015)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Drama
Fox | PG13 – 124 min. – $39.99 | May 3, 2016
Date Published: 05/11/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE – 3.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Joy (played by JENNFIER LAWRENCE) is the wild story of a family across four generations and centers on the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence and the scars pave the road in this film about becoming a true loss of family and enterprise facing a world of unforgiving commerce. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces. Quick Hit Review: Joy is a movie that, as most David O. Russell’s do, heavily rely on the performances of his all-star cast and on that front, there’s no question they do a wonderful job. The issue I had is with the story. Initially I found the concept a bit lacking but Russell does manage to at least make it somewhat interesting, but as much as one can admire and appreciate Joy’s struggles, especially with her overly obnoxious and dishonest family, grandma Mimi aside, the entire journey just lacked, I don’t know, anything overly compelling. About half of the film mainly focuses on Joy’s struggles both at work and a chaotic family life where she has her elderly father Rudy (ROBER DE NIRO) moving back in alongside a soap opera addict watcher mother (VIRGINIA MADSEN) and an ex-husband (EDGAR RAMIREZ) living in the basement where papa, who hates the ex, also will reside. Oh, and then she has two young children to take care of before taking off for a dead-end job and balancing the books of her father’s business. This section is mostly tedious and insufferable though I suppose that was Russell’s intent and the family’s demeanor, with the addition of Rudy’s new gal, Trudy (ISABELLA ROSSELLINI), enters the picture and reluctantly loans the money to Joy, though the nightmare only begins with an unscrupulous manufacturer not to mention paying thousands of dollars for rights to a patent as there’s a product, that would become the Wonder Mop, which closely resembles her design. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5 |
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This release comes with a slip cover with a foldout on the front. Inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Joy, Strength and Perseverance (20:21; HD) – This making-of featurette chronicles the story and characters. It contains interviews with David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Edgar Ramirez, Bradley Cooper, Virginia Madsen and others plus the real life Joy Mangano. Times Talk (1:07:42; HD) is footage from a special put on by the New York Times and featured Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell answering questions by moderator Maureen Dowd. The Gallery features a series of still images. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Joy arrives on Blu-ray presented in its original theatrical 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer (MPEG-4 AVC codec). The picture quality is fairly impressive with bright colors that have a nice pop and detail is sharp and clean throughout. There were no obvious signs of artifacts, aliasing or banding making for a pleasing looking picture. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track isn’t bad but for a movie that is generally dialogue-driven, there’s not a whole lot to judge. Still, dialogue levels are crisp and clean and where the track shows the most depth is with Russell’s choice in period music as well as some of the ambient noises making use of the rear channels especially during the QVC segments. It’s nothing amazing but effective. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
| Overall, considering the talent involved, Joy should’ve been an easy homerun with a compelling story and top notch actors but instead it meanders in places, others don’t feel entirely cohesive and I just wasn’t all that enamored despite its high points. Still, it’s not terrible and might be worth a rental. The Blu-ray released through Fox is weak in bonus materials but the video and audio transfers were well done. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.
The Screen Caps are missing. Page 2 is linked to the gallery for No Escape.
Yeah, at the bottom of the review, caps are coming soon.