Movie Review: Joy (SPOILERS)

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J.M.J.

Photo credit: IMDb

I went to the theatre yesterday afternoon and I saw a movie that touched me deeply in a lot of ways. There were many funny moments in the film but the plot is also realistic. I cried. I normally don't cry in public.

Joy is a woman who used to have a lot of hopes and dreams when she was a little girl. Her grandma encouraged her in those, as her mother spent all day sitting on her bed watching soap operas. When Joy was little, she built things. She was very creative. She met her future husband at a party, enamored by his good looks and how he was finding himself in realized dreams. 

Now, Joy's life is falling apart. Her now ex-husband lives in her basement, and her mom and grandma live with her. Her dad also moves in while dating someone new. Joy has two kids, and their future looks bleak and she knows it. 

What happened to Joy's sparkle? When did she stop believing in herself? Well, reality set in. Life didn't go as her grandma had always told her it would. Her grandma told her to study hard, go to college, meet someone wonderful, and have children. Joy couldn't go to college because she had to take care of her "helpless" mom and poured herself out for her family until she was more than empty. And in regards to her love life: she had met someone wonderful and had children, but the grandma made a comment after the divorce. She said that they made better friends than they did husband and wife. I think that could be said for a lot of couples. Just because you're good friends doesn't mean you should get married. Sometimes you find your best friend and then you want to marry him or her, and that's when it's real. But I digress.

I wish I could find the exact quote for the part in the movie when she's falling in love with her future husband but I can't. It's in some of the trailers though if you want to look it up. I'll paraphrase here. He was asking her about her life and frankly it sounded quite boring. Yes she was valedictorian of her class but she didn't seem passionate about anything. He was so full of ambition and dreams that he was making a part of his life everyday (he was a musician) that the comparison was stark. He said, it sounds like your dreams have been put on hold. She replied, that's one way of putting it I guess. 

I highly recommend this movie. I mentioned at the beginning that it touched me deeply. This is where it gets personal, but people seem to like that, so...

There was a part in the film where Joy is reading her daughter a bedtime story. The story is an unusual one; it's actually a book about cicadas. I don't know if you've ever seen one but they're rather nasty creatures. I would call them little but they're not. I went to Kansas once and they were dropping from the trees in the extreme humid heat everywhere a tree stood. Anyway, what I learned about these insects as Joy was reading was that they stay buried for 17 years and then emerge. How weird is that? Then Joy started having bizarre dreams where she was attending a funeral for her younger self. 

17 years ago, I was about eight years old. I didn't have any big dreams but I think of the span between 8 and 25 (which I'll turn in April), and not a lot has happened, really. It's crazy to think that I'm older than 17. That I can even add 8 to it and get my current age is scary. So much time can pass and so little can happen. I graduated from high school, graduated from community college, moved 40 minutes away, got a new job, switched jobs 10 months later, and now here I am. That may sound like a lot but it's not. What ambitions did I have when I was younger? I have forgotten, and that is sad. I think I was full of ideas, but I was also full of fear. I may have thought of many things that I could do but I figured I would never do them. I had these visions for my future. I figured I'd be some kind of professional. Actually, I had an evolution of ideas about what I'd be when I grew up, ranging from grocery store bagger to waitress (accomplished that one) to mother. Above all I wanted to be like my mom and get married and have kids. I still want that. I think I will always want that whether it happens or not. I do hope that, like Joy did and the cicadas do, that I will now emerge in my 25th year (and before that) as the woman that God created me to be. To be the best version of myself. 

If you're still reading, congratulations. You've reached the end of my movie review. Life is real and this movie reflects that. Don't go if you don't want to be affected deeply or reminded of tragic and joyous events from your own lives.

God bless you!

Stephanie