Joy

Joy is a straight down the middle rendition of a life changing breakthrough in science and the struggles to achieve it when so many people are against its existence. It's a classic example of a true story that changed everything being turned into a film as formulaic as possible. Thanks to a very charming cast and the emotional heft that just comes with telling this fact based story competently it remains a really good watch.

The three leads are all great. Thomasin McKenzie gets the most to work as this is her film from her perspective. The struggles she has come from every angle and her perseverance only makes it more investing. James Norton brings a lot of energy as someone who has a real desire to make the world a better place which makes it heartbreaking to see him feel defeated. Bill Nighy is in fine form thanks to another one of his lovely genial roles he's becoming increasingly popular with.

Ben Taylor's direction brings a nice amount of playfulness to the visuals early on before quickly devolving into something a lot less noticeable in an inoffensive fashion. It starts off with an unexpected Richard Curtis feel that soon disappears but it maintains a sturdy and well made quality throughout. The soundtrack contains a few well implemented songs that enhance the generally warm nature of the film and match the perfectly chosen title.

The film follows the journey of the three people - visionary scientist Robert Edwards, innovative surgeon Patrick Steptoe, and pioneering nurse Jean Purdy - who teamed up to make the procedure a reality, with special focus placed on the often overlooked role Purdy played in the breakthrough. As someone who is currently 34 weeks pregnant through IVF after years of infertility, I found this film deeply moving and beautifully documented. It gave me a renewed appreciation for the people who have made IVF possible. While my personal experience might make me a bit biased towards this film, I'm confident this film will resonate with anyone who has undergone infertility treatments. Highly recommend!

I can't believe fifty years ago people were against babies being born. We've clearly come very far both in terms of medical advancements and critical thinking and we still have a long way to go, but fifty years seems not that long ago.

Also, I can't believe Jean's mom. Hardline believers are mystifying for sure. And I wonder how much of Jean's life in this movie is fiction for the sake of the movie. Anyway, it's such a shame she died so young, I'm sure there was so much more she could have accomplished.

I didn't find this boring at all. I know most people find it lacking, but I didn't. It's a good story. It's amusing again that the actors look nothing like the actual people they're portraying, and you can see where I'm going with this. But I'm part of the audience that likes to see attractive and well put together people on screen, so I'd be a hypocrite to complain, right? Also, at this point Bill Nighy makes any movie better just by sitting there.

Joy is the story of the development of IVF, and specifically the role of Jean Purdy in that world-changing process - a woman whose contribution to the research and treatment was too often written out of history. That a woman's contribution should be written out of this, of all stories is of course a deeply ironic injustice; and the film is seeking to do for this injustice what Hidden Figures did for a similar injustice in the history of the American space programme. Thomasin McKenzie is excellent - as she usually is - in the lead role, and Bill Nighy is well used as one of the surgeons. The story is, of course, inspiring and uplifting, but I can't help but feel that such a remarkable and important story deserves a better film. It's fine as it is - and it does improve as it goes on. But the script in particular does too much exposition, especially in the early stages; some of that may be felt to be necessary in a story that science plays such a role in. But the result is that it takes too much of its running time to really feel emotionally engaging. More character depth, a little more nuance in some of the issues the story raises would have led to something that felt even more worthy of the remarkable raw historical material. The process is interesting - but this is fundamentally a story about people. And whilst it's hard not to be moved by the end of the film, I can't help but wish for a production that was more emotionally engaging throughout.

Netflix definitely not taking any risks with this one, but I think for this subject that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The first act had me a bit worried as it kind of started a bit too cheesy where it was bordering on something like that stupid hot cheetos movie. Fortunately by the second act some real conflict and interesting character/plot development did arise in a moderately interesting way. I will admit they got me with the sentimental true-story conclusion. Sometimes it's nice to just watch something light and heartwarming, and I think with the actually interesting subject matter this is a good choice for that kind of vibe.

Thomasin Mckenzie is wonderful as this character and I am soooo glad they followed the female scientist as the main character in this story, I think that was the only way to make this work. Jean Purdy seems she was criminally overlooked as many of the brilliant women of her time, but it inspires some hope to know that her male collaborators were fierce advocators for her recognition as a crucial scientist in this huge accomplishment.

It's good, watch it for a date night or something.