Following the glittering awards success of both American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, filmmaker David O. Russell is primed to launch another horse into this year’s race with Joy, which is due to open smack back in the middle of cinema’s annual purple patch, Christmas Day. And judging by the riveting first teaser released earlier today, it’s likely both the film and its cast will be in contention later this year.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence as Miracle Mop inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, O. Russell’s biopic charts her meteoric rise as a prodigious inventor of all things household. At one point, the titular protagonist holds close to 100 patents for a variety of gizmos, though Mangano struggled to balance a lucrative business and family life, given that she was also acting as a single mother to three young children.
Reuniting the core cast from O’Russell’s award-winning Silver Linings Playbook – which incidentally bagged Lawrence her first Oscar – both Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro are on board for Joy, while Virginia Madsen recently joined the production in a yet-to-be-revealed role.
Charting the trials and tribulations synonymous with fame and fortune, O. Russell’s Joy looks set to give Jennifer Lawrence one of her meatiest roles yet, and don’t be too surprised if the fan-favorite actress is amongst the names on the Oscar ballot in a few months’ time.
Joy is the wild story of a family across four generations centered on the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence and the scars of love, pave the road in this intense emotional and human comedy about becoming a true boss of family and enterprise facing a world of unforgiving commerce. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces. Jennifer Lawrence stars, with Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd, and Virginia Madsen. Like David O. Russell’s previous films, Joy defies genre to tell a story of family, loyalty, and love.
