Fresh from making jokes about mental illness and reminding us that THE 70s EXISTED AND PEOPLE HAD BIG HAIR AND STUFF in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle respectively, David O'Russell is back at it again with a sort-of-biopic based on the woman who invented the Miracle Mop. Somehow, it's one of his worst films yet - no easy feat - a mess of tonal inconsistencies, poor character development, and a misunderstanding of the fact that making an innocent woman suffer isn't a suitable shortcut for compelling drama (see also: Lars von Trier).
It's filled with this inappropriately wacky family drama - with people like Robert De Niro and Isabella Rossellini forgetting to convince us that their characters are real people - that was irritating back when it was done competently in I Heart Huckabees, but here suffers from acting in almost complete opposition to, um, what the film is apparently supposed to be about - a woman inventing a mop. It's like O'Russell got drunk and watched the first 30 minutes of The Royal Tenenbaums before passing out. The only bit which works is a more traditional sequence where the film's titular character Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) tries to sell a mop on QVC, and that only lasts about three minutes. In short: not enough mop-based action.
But all of this pales in comparison to the films biggest flaw, which involves the casting of Joy Mangano herself. Yes, I'm afraid our beloved J-Law just doesn't belong in this film, and isn't nearly as wonderful as everyone's saying she is. Let's try and break it down...
Here is a picture of Joy Mangano at around the time she first became popular.
Here is a picture of Jennifer Lawrence being charming on the Graham Norton show.
It's not a problem that they don't look like each other. It is a problem that Lawrence is having to play someone like Joy Mangano in the first place. Mangano was born in 1956, and first sold mops on QVC in 1992, making her about 36 years old. Jennifer Lawrence was born in 1990, and is 25 years old, even though she still looks about 19. "Now Sam," I hear you cry, "isn't that a bit trivial? David O'Russell has already said it's a mostly fictional biopic, with many characters and events plucked out of thin air. Surely as long as Lawrence captures Mangano's spirit, there's no real problem with that?"
Yes, that might be true. But when we're having to stomach the fact that Lawrence's character is divorced, with two kids, with apparently "no life" ahead of her after skipping college, we run into a bit of a problem, especially when she has to depict Joy in the later stages of her life, as a mid-40s matriarch with a successful business empire. Lawrence can be an unflinching Ozark Mountain girl, Lawrence can be a brave teenage resistance fighter, Lawrence can even get away with being a bipolar free spirit. But Lawrence is the furthest you can get from a matriarch. She's 25! She probably still eats her own bogies.
It sounds petty, but it's what sinks the entire ship. You never believe Joy is a real person. You never believe her family are real people. You never believe watching the film was really worth your time.
★★
