Plot: What’s it about?
It’s been nearly two decades, but one of my favorite films of recent memory is a little film called Three Kings. It starred a then burgeoning star by the name of George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube. The film was about Desert Storm (circa 1991) and directed by one David O. Russell. Russell re-teamed with Wahlberg in the offbeat comedy I Heart Huckabees a few years later and then again with The Fighter. Suffice it to say that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This must be a policy and Russell subscribes to as this is now his third collaboration with Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper. Hey, I’m not complaining – two of them have won Academy Awards and the other has been nominated and all three films have been fun and entertaining to watch. And when I think of the meteoric rise of Jennifer Lawrence, it’s really hard to wrap my hands around. It seems that only a few years ago I was watching a little film called Winter’s Bone in which she played a girl looking for her Dad. She was the “girl on fire” in the Hunger Games and snagged the role of Mystique in the newer X-Men films to boot. It must be good to be Jennifer Lawrence. All that aside, this latest re-teaming in Joy earned Lawrence her third Best Actress nomination (she lost to Brie Larson in Room), so I was more than interested to see what the fuss was about…
Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) could have had a wonderful life. She was the valedictorian of her High School, was creative and always inventing things. But life has a way of throwing a curve and she forfeited college to help her father (Robert DeNiro) through this divorce. She married Tony (Edgar Ramirez), who had aspirations of being a Latino Tom Jones. It didn’t work out. Tony now lives in her basement looking for his next gig. And Joy’s mother (Virginia Madsen) spends her days shut in her room addicted to soap operas. But life has a way of throwing a curve and when on a sailing adventure, Joy comes up with an idea for a mop that will revolutionize domestic chores. Borrowing money from Trudy (Isabella Rossellini), her Dad’s new girlfriend, she manages to come up with a prototype and via a network executive (Bradley Cooper) gets a shot on QVC. Nothing happens. But Joy is persistent and manages to get another shot only this time it works. Being misadvises by lawyers and taken advantage of by her manufacturers, it looks like her success could be short-lived. Or is it?
I don’t really know who had the idea to write a movie based on the life of someone who sold (and became very wealthy) selling household items on television, but it goes to show you that there can be a film about pretty much anything. To be fair, this is a good – not great – film. The usual suspects deliver the goods and I suppose that Jennifer Lawrence was worthy of her Oscar nomination. But I also feel that she, like Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep, seem to get nominated just because the Academy loves them. One thing that bothered me, and this is just me nitpicking, is that I really had a hard time figuring out what time period this was supposed to be. Based on the costumes and music, I was thinking early 80’s, but when I looked up Joy Mangano in Wikipedia, it looks as if she came up with these ideas in the early 90’s. Again, it isn’t a huge deal, but something worth noting. I was also reminded of other real life biopics like Julie and Julia, The Big Short or Concussion – it’s always fascinating to me to see stories ripped from the headlines that make the transition to the big screen. This is entertaining to say the least, but stick with Silver Linings Playbook to see all three leads at the top of their game.
Video: How’s it look?
Ever since I got my new television, it produces the aspect ratios a bit differently than my previous one. This isn’t bad, but when I see those tiny black bars at the top and bottom of my screen, I have to tell myself that this is a 1.85:1 movie and that the 1.78:1 films are the only ones that truly fill the entire screen. That’s not really pertinent information, but it’s a long winded way of saying that this is presented in a 1.85:1 AVC HD image. If you look at some of the marketing for this movie, you’ll notice the shot of Jennifer Lawrence in a black leather jacket wearing sunglasses in the snow. Yes, this happens in the film, but it’s only for a second (and it’s not real snow, it’s a machine outside of a hardware store) – is that image sufficiently ruined now? Ok. Kidding and unrelated anecdotes aside, the movie looks just as we’d expect it to with colors bursting at every turn, detail looks fine and a generally strong transfer all around. Some of the exterior shots seem to be a bit oversaturated as the sun never seems to shine when they filmed the movie. Fox has done a bang up job with this and it’s really no surprise that I’ve very little to complain about here.
Audio: How’s it sound?
I was a bit surprised at how robust some of the scenes in this movie are. The included DTS HD Master Audio track really do sound pretty good. The soundtrack is littered with songs from the 70’s and 80’s which really give the mix an added “oomph.” Vocals are fine, no real complaints here and every character has their own style of delivering their lines. DeNiro sounds like he does in every other film while Lawrence’s strained, raspy tone comes through with the utmost clarity. There are a few examples of great surround sound, mainly when the music pumps up but by and large this track is a bit front heavy. Color this kid impressed, as I really wasn’t expecting much.
Supplements: What are the extras?
- Joy, Strength and Perseverance – This is your standard EPK with some interviews with the main players in the film (Lawrence, Virginia Madsen, Robert DeNiro and David O. Russell among others). We learn of the motivation to make the film, the once again re-teaming of Cooper/DeNiro and Jennifer Lawrence as well as some Hollywood royalty with the likes of Isabella Rossellini. It’s a step above the average “Making of…” featurette and delivers some good information.
- Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell Times Talk with Maureen Dowd – Running at just over an hour, this is a fairly interesting watch as well. It’s a bit informal as Dowd manages to compliment Jennifer Lawrence’s shoes and says that “God had a good day when he made you.” But, by and large, it’s chock full of information and it’s nice to see the candidness from Lawrence and David O. Russell.
- Photo Gallery – Are you ready for this? We get six (maybe seven) stills from the movie. These can be played manually or automatically. Yes!
The Bottom Line
Admittedly I enjoyed Joy more so than American Hustle, but it’ll be hard to top Silver Linings Playbook when it comes to the Russell/Cooper/Lawrence/DeNiro combination. Technical merits are as expected, if not a shade better but the disc is a bit light on supplements.
