Joy,
directed by David O. Russell
(PG-13, 124 minutes)
How can anyone find fault with a David O. Russell-directed tale of a feisty bootstrap-tugging inventor, played with maximum skill by oh-so-hot Jennifer Lawrence, who pledges all she's got on a lowly mop that she is sure will transform housekeeping as we know it?
As terrific as Lawrence is in the role, her one-step-forward, two-steps-back character is the only screen presence with the grit and personality to be likable.
And that means the audience is stuck with far too many pathetic, disagreeable and graceless characters -- who are responsible for most of those two-steps-back episodes -- through most of the film's too-long running time.
It's the story of Joy Mangano of Long Island, who believes her beloved grandmother Mimi's (Diane Ladd) insistence throughout her life that she is special. It's hard to buy this notion as Joy, marginally working as a gate agent at a failing airline, is divorced with small kids. Her ex-husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez) is living in the basement of her house. Her mother, Terry (Virginia Madsen), also divorced, spends her time in bed watching soap operas. Her dad, Rudy (Robert De Niro), after having dumped Terry and a previous wife, methodically finds other women to house and care for him. And her half-sister Peggy (Elisabeth Rohm) is jealous of what she perceives as Joy's preferential status in this extraordinarily unpleasant family.
Joy is not deterred. She is assured by Mimi that she is inventive and creative, and one of her ideas will bring her success in the business world. That idea, sketched out with Joy's daughter's crayons, turns out to be the self-wringing Miracle Mop. With the help of financing by Rudy's wealthy girlfriend Trudy (Isabella Rossellini), Joy's newfound business acumen is sure to mean fame and fortune is on the way. Right?
Alas, the journey to success lurches along far too slowly to hold the audience's interest. We can only put up with so many disasters and drawbacks before wondering why we're even on this road. It doesn't help that De Niro's Rudy is stuck with outrageously insulting lines that not even the most sourpuss dad would say to his daughter. Equally annoying is Bradley Cooper's Neil Walker, a beaming Buddha of an executive at Home Shopping Network, whose benevolence toward Joy is just short of smarmy.
Alternately frustrating and disappointing, the film brags about its true-story roots. But despite Lawrence's doggedly good-natured work, it's hard to fall in love with a woman and her mop.
The 5th Wave (PG-13, 112 minutes) A decent cast is the best you can say for The 5th Wave, a cheaply made and pointless adaptation of a young adult sci-fi novel that over-explains the characters' motives and prevents them, and the plot, from moving forward. That plot, such as it is, concerns Cassie Sullivan (Maika Monroe), age 16, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world similar to the Stone Age thanks to an alien invasion. With Liev Schreiber, Maria Bello, Nick Robinson, Chloe Grace Moretz; directed by J. Blakeson.
Remember (R, 95 minutes) A dignified, poignant film about 90-year-old Zev Guttman (Christopher Plummer), a victim of memory loss, whose placid nursing-home existence is shaken when he receives a package from his longtime pal Max (Martin Landau) that contains a pile of cash and a letter detailing a daring plan to deal with the sadistic guard responsible for the deaths of their families while they were prisoners in Auschwitz. With Bruno Ganz, Dean Norris, Henry Czerny; directed by Atom Egoyan.
American Sniper (R, 132 minutes) The two-disc Chris Kyle commemorative edition of this 2014 film comes with 60 minutes of new bonus content, including in-depth documentaries narrated by Bradley Cooper.
Cooper plays Kyle, whose skills as a lethal Navy SEAL sharpshooter sniper and qualities as a human being made him a hero on and off the battlefield.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, the story is told in a straightforward Hollywood fashion that camouflages the exploration of masculine myth. While Kyle is aware of the moral implications of his work, his decision-making is reduced to flow-chart clarity. If this occurs, he will shoot. If it does not, he won't. He's working off a script.
It's Eastwood's most subtle effort as a director, which nearly redeems the action-movie themes that eventually overwhelm this technically excellent if thematically muddled movie. With Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Luke Grimes.
MovieStyle on 05/06/2016