Joy

I decided I want to give stars. For now. 

★★★☆☆

When a movie is called "Joy" and it's not a Pixar or a Disney movie or in general something for children you might as well bet it's not going to be anything joyous. In fact you might even think of the title as sarcasm. But in the current case Joy is the name of the main character, portrayed by the lovely Jennifer Lawrence. She has the life of a Cinderella, every single person in her life, besides her grandmother, seems to use her, take advantage of her kindness, treat her unfairly and lack faith her.

Spoilers ahead

The only thing that changes this story from a Cinderella one os that there is no prince to go after, no fairy godmother to help, if you don't count the grandmother the woman has to handle things on her own. What could and probably should be an inspirational feministic story of a woman working her way up the business ladder ends up feeling me rather depressed. Yes, she succeeded after a lifelong of battling and having been put down by everyone, but all I can think about was how unfair her life was to begin with. Even the happy ending doesn't seem all that happy to me. Yes, she's a big boss now and she managed to maintain her humanity and kind personality, but in the tough business world of America - can she ever really be at peace?


The story is based on the stories of real women and that is it's strongest point. It is depressing and watching it didn't make me feel good, but at least the film was realistic. It was real to the end and Joy is kind and smart and clever. There are a couple of charming characters too, next to the terrible father and evil sister there is a kind girlfriend and a sweet ex-husband. It's not my favorite movie, but it might still be a good one.