Posted: January 10, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Albert Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Annie Mumolo, Bradley Cooper, Concussion, David Morse, David O. Russell, Diane Ladd, Edgar Ramirez, Isabella Rossellini, Jeanne Marie Laskas, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Ken Howard, Melissa Rivers, Peter Landesman, Robert de Niro, Susan Lucci, Virginia Madsen, Will Smith | 183 Comments »
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Warning: SPOILERS
The movie Joy, the new sorta, kinda, maybe bio-pic of Joy Magano, inventor of the Miracle Mop, starts out with text on the screen: “Inspired by the true stories of daring women. One in particular”.
I don’t know. Somehow on seeing those words up there in front of me, there was something so…condescending and patronizing about it all. It’s as if the filmmakers David O. Russell (who wrote the screenplay and directed) and Annie Mumolo (who worked on Bridesmaids and gets co-story credit here) were doing women a favor by making the movie at all and that somehow women should be thankful that someone actually created a film that instructs them how they should be leading their lives, since, being women, apparently, they don’t really know how to be daring and independent themselves.
I’m sure I’m overreacting and I’m sure few others felt the same way, but there was just something about it that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Once this intro was over, we then spend the first third of the movie with Joy being victimized by her family (both extended and not) as it falls to her to take care of everyone else’s problems while she puts hers on hold.
This section didn’t play that well with me, I’m afraid. It’s hard to watch a character allow her or himself to be treated like a door mat, letting everyone walk all over then. I think the intent is for those in the audience to say, “Oh, the poor woman”, when in reality, we’re sort of thinking, “Hey, no one’s forcing you to be the cure all for other people’s over-exaggerated slings and arrows”. Read the rest of this entry »
