While you’ll find "Bridemaids" writer Annie Mumolo‘s name credited for "Joy," make no mistake, David O. Russell has made the story, influenced by the life of Miracle Mop creator Joy Mangano, all his own. “Jennifer [Lawrence] and I said to Fox, we’ll only do this if I can do a completely original screenplay that’s my fable,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “So we started making what we feel is magical and real.”
The result is the movie that opens on Christmas Day, and features such wild flights of fancy as soap opera stars appearing in fantasy sequences, and Melissa Rivers playing her mother, Joan Rivers. It’s a familiar stew of Russell’s screwball tendencies, and while it didn’t work for some critics in early reviews, our take is that cumulative effect is worth the journey (read our review).
"Joy" opens on Christmas Day. Check out two clips below, a Q&A with the director and key cast members, plus new images.
