In Joy, Jennifer Lawrence and director David O. Russell turn one woman's grapple with the machinery of business into freewheeling American mythology.<br />The film is based on the story of "Miracle Mop" inventor Joy Mangano, whose personal history can be difficult to uncover.<br />Mangano gave Russell full access to her life and memories, but the writer/director veers away from traditional biopic structure into territory that verges on the surreal.<br />Funny, moving, exasperating, and ultimately uplifting, Joy folds in dreams, fantasies, and deliberately exaggerated characters and situations to find a unique spin on the story of a purposeful and savvy businesswoman.<br />This is not the story of a woman who assembled an entrepreneurial empire by selling mops on television.<br />It is an idiosyncratic fable inspired, as the opening credits say, "by true stories of daring women, one in particular."
