Take it from someone who thought director David O. Russell extracted an exhilarating and heartfelt zaniness from Jennifer Lawrence when they worked together on Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle: Joy is a waste of time and talent. Based on the life of a struggling single mother who became a home-shopping network impresario, the movie has exactly one Lawrence-worthy moment: Joy’s discovery, while making her first sales pitch on live TV, that the power is finally in her hands. Otherwise this is all forced family dysfunction (given a condescending comic spin) and a lamentable misuse of talented actors (Isabella Rossellini, Robert De Niro, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen and even Russell vet Bradley Cooper in an ill-fitting supporting role).
