Joy

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade:D

Review: This film tries hard, but sadly it is mostly just bland and overlong, despite a few good scenes.

The main character of this film is pretty likable, but unfortunately she is the only character in the film one feels like they actually get to know. The rest of the characters are just bland and boring. The actors give it a lot of effort and talent, but unfortunately they are given little to work with. On top of that you never truly feel the emotional connection to the story that director/writer David O Russell, seems to want you to feel. Still on top of that the movie just feels like it should have ended much earlier than it did. However there is some good humor (as well as some humor that misses the mark), and a couple of emotional scenes actually work well. Despite this Joy is mostly joyless.

P.S. I was tempted to make this review more jokingly by referring to it as a spin off movie to Inside Out, but I decided against this and the film gave me fairly little to work that joke with.

-Michael J. Ruhland