In Joy, Jennifer Lawrence and director David O. Russell turn one woman's grapple with the machinery of business into freewheeling American mythology.
The film is based on the story of "Miracle Mop" inventor Joy Mangano, whose personal history can be difficult to uncover.
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.
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.
This is not the story of a woman who assembled an entrepreneurial empire by selling mops on television.
It is an idiosyncratic fable inspired, as the opening credits say, "by true stories of daring women, one in particular."