We Got This Covered | ‘Joy’ Review
We Got This Covered
In attempting to bring a real woman’s life to the big screen, Russell instead shrinks her down into a mythic, fairy-tale figure, the quintessentially American dreamer too inherently good to give up on her ambitions, no matter how many obstacles she has to overcome in the process. That treatment has the net effect of making the whole film seem half-sketched, because there’s nothing genuine in Joy – or really in Joy – to latch onto. The two hours drift by, some scenes protracted and others rushed but none legitimately engaging. Especially in its largely pointless final stretch, Russell’s film feels less biopic and more infomercial, like a dopey attempt to honor the woman that instead sanitizes, sanctifies and simplifies her until she no longer feels human. And where’s the value, let alone the joy, in that?
