Review of 'Joy'

Not much joy in this one. It's a rather long, remorseless account of life in what Americans call the middle class (and is really the working class), among people who are for the most part not very good at life. But Joy herself is smart and has (mostly abandoned) aspirations to greatness. She invents things, even though she's never been able to capitalise on those inventions.

At last she invents something that she wants to turn into a business - a new kind of mop. She encounters lots of obstacles, some from people who are just sceptical or unhelpful, and some from genuine crooks. In some ways this film could be a business school case study - it's just rather miserable to watch for most of the way, though there a few laughs here and there.

Because it's American it has an upbeat ending; a realistic ending would have seen Joy falling back into the morass of debt-ridden poverty that she fears all the way through.

Not without merit, but on balance one to avoid.

For the record, watched at the new Everyman cinema in Muswell Hill; comfortable but over-priced for experience. The cinema was more or less empty.