Joy Mangano has always been fascinated by creating things, This pursuit was always supported emotionally by her maternal grandmother, Mimi. Joy feels that lack of practical support has led to others making fortunes on ideas she came up with years ago but could not act upon manufacturing. Despite being broke, Joy is the person in her extended family to whom everyone has always turned, in the process forgoing her own life, including not having attended college to help see her parents through their divorce. She works in an unsatisfying job as an Eastern Airlines ticket clerk; and lives with her mother Terry who spends all day in bed watching soap operas; her ex-husband Tony, a less than successful aspiring Latino Tom Jones wannabe; and their two children. Added to this mix is her father Rudy, the owner of a failing heavy-duty garage, which is managed by Joy's older half-sister Peggy, with whom she has somewhat of a strained relationship, and for which Joy does the books. Sharon, Rudy's ...Written by
Huggo
This is the third David O. Russell film in which Jennifer Lawrence has played a character significantly older than she is in real-life. In Silver Linings Playbook (2012), her character, Tiffany (who was in her forties in the source novel) was married for several years, putting her in her mid-to-late twenties. Lawrence was 21 during filming. In American Hustle (2013), Rosalyn's real-life counterpart was in her forties, and had been a mother for several years. Joy Mangano didn't start selling her inventions until she was 30. Lawrence was 25 during filming. See more »
Goofs
Stacked on top of the TV in Terri's bedroom are VHS cassettes and cassette boxes that are much bigger than a VHS cassette. These boxes are the type used to store the large 90-minute version of Betacam SP tapes, a professional videotape format commonly used in television production and broadcasting. The equipment used to play back this kind of tape can be seen in the film when Joy takes the telephone call inside the QVC control room. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Clarinda:
[TV soap opera scene]
It doesn't make sense, I don't understand how something like this happened. I don't know what I'm going to do. This has been my whole life, and now it's gone I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Pendleton Industries is all I've ever known, and now it's all been taken away.
Danica:
When someone sees a weakness in me, I turn that weakness into a strength.
[holds up a gun]
Clarinda:
Danica, you're so strong. I don't think I can do anything like this.
Danica:
You can imagine changing your life...
[...] See more »
Crazy Credits
The 20th Century Fox fanfare is shortened for the first half, in order to have the bells taking over it for the second half. Like in The Maze Runner (2014), it cuts to black. The opening theme starts playing over the following Annapurna Pictures and Davis Entertainment logos. See more »
The film was okay or what I would call "underwhelming". The first half of the film dragged out a bit and could have been condensed without losing any important information. The last half to a third of the film was glossed over missing out on details of how she moved on and became so successful. The storyline development was really lacking on the last part of the film. The first half is slow and somewhat overly detailed with monotonous information. At times it was repetitive and I wanted to "fast-forward" to move it along. We finally get to the point of the story where she takes control and then the story ending seems abrupt. Using a narrative to recap how she became successful was a disappointing way of bringing the story to a close. Could have been better. I left the theater not fully understanding what Joy's full success really was.
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The film was okay or what I would call "underwhelming". The first half of the film dragged out a bit and could have been condensed without losing any important information. The last half to a third of the film was glossed over missing out on details of how she moved on and became so successful. The storyline development was really lacking on the last part of the film. The first half is slow and somewhat overly detailed with monotonous information. At times it was repetitive and I wanted to "fast-forward" to move it along. We finally get to the point of the story where she takes control and then the story ending seems abrupt. Using a narrative to recap how she became successful was a disappointing way of bringing the story to a close. Could have been better. I left the theater not fully understanding what Joy's full success really was.