Review: JOY

     The whole gang is back together! Like old times! But the big problem is that maybe they wanted to be together so much that the "project" didn't matter.
     This "gang" is writer/director David O. Russell and stars Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper. This is their third film together after The Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Those films were huge successes. Russell got back in Hollywood's good graces (where was he between I Heart Huckabees and Playbook?), Lawrence won an Oscar, and De Niro was back in decent films. But with Joy, their latest collaboration, it almost feels like a shell of a film, as if these people just wanted to work together again they'd come up with any excuse. Russell wanted Lawrence to star so he thought the idea of a female-driven film would be ideal...and because Russell is now known as a loose, on-set filmmaker more than a set-in-stone, follow-the-script-exactly type, maybe he didn't think he needed a great script. Maybe Lawrence wanted to star so bad and get a leading role in her friend's film that she didn't care about the quality of the script. And the dominoes fell and were left with Joy, a film with an intriguing premise that doesn't really go anywhere rewarding or interesting. It feels like we're short-changed when it's done. And that's a problem.
     I've mopped floors a billion times and have never even heard of The Miracle Mop. But apparently years ago it made a poor, divorced woman rich. This is that story. And it's a good, Rocky-esque plot. Lawrence is a child with a big imagination but ends up a failure. She's broke, has a lousy job, divorced with kids, living with her parents and ex-husband. Then she finally comes up with a new idea and decides to become a business woman, which turns out to be incredibly difficult. She finally gains success on a new TV channel, QVC, and the rest is history (I guess it is...I've never heard of this woman...though I admit I've never watched QVC...and a classic mop and bucket has always worked good enough for me).
     The best aspect of Joy (and Playbook) is the family dynamic. De Niro is hilarious in this. Add a Spanish singer ex-husband living in the basement, a soap opera addicted mom that falls in love with the Haitian plumber, and an evil half-sister, and the drama is fun, chaotic, and entertaining to watch. After a half hour, though, the film ends up being a business woman on a mission trying to sell a mop and this never becomes more interesting than it sounds (and it sounds dull, right?).
     Perhaps a documentary would have been more interesting. Russell attempts to make this out to be a film exploring a person fulfilling and going after their dreams, which may have worked if there was more here. The film is slight, bare, and ends up at its rich/success finish way too fast. The idea of being children with fantastic dreams only to end up middle-aged 9 to 5ers stuck in the quagmire of life is, obviously, prominent in a lot of films. That this woman got out of her rut and become a success story is nice, but do we care? We could. We should. But unfortunately we don't.
     Russell has made some good films in the past (Three Kings will always be his best), but Joy just feels like a thrown-together, vanity project...a reason to get together with old friends.
     There's a scene in American Hustle where Bradley Cooper is in an office after a victory and he's over-acting and show-boating and he's hilarious and the scene is kinetic and fun and wild. There's more energy to that one scene than in the entire film Joy. And Cooper's character and performance in this is kind of how the film ended up: Cooper is restrained, tired, and just there.
     Joy is entertaining in spots and De Niro and Lawrence give good performances but it's way too plain. It's forgettable, forgotten. ** (out of ****)