Posts Tagged ‘Virginia Madsen’

Joy

Director: David O. Russell

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro, Edgar Ramirez, Virginia Madsen, Diane Ladd, Isabella Rossellini, Bradley Cooper, Elisabeth Rohm, Dascha Polanco

Director David O. Russell’s third collaboration with Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, Joy is about a feisty daring divorced young mother of two who gambles her entire life savings on her own invention of the Miracle Mop. Loosely based on the true story of Joy Mangano who invented and patented the miracle mop back in the mid-eighties, the film version is a quirky dysfunctional tale of a family who do their best to distract Joy from her primary goal, that of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Joy’s dizzy mother Terry played by Virginia Madsen is engrossed in glossy eighties soap operas while her father Rudy and greying Casanova, wonderfully played by Robert de Niro, his second appearance in a David O. Russell film after Silver Linings Playbook. Joy’s grandmother is the rock of her world, Mimi played by the irrepressible Diane Ladd (Rambling Rose).

When Rudy starts dating a wealthy Italian widow Trudy, beautifully played Isabella Rossellini in one of her most prolific roles yet, Joy seizes upon an opportunity to ask Trudy to invest in her idea of the miracle mop. However after many unsuccessful attempts to sell her product, primarily outside K. Mart, Joy’s ex-husband, the amiable Venezuelan wanna-be singer, Tony played by Edgar Ramirez (Point Break) suggests that they go and approach a Pennsylvania business man directly.

In a series of chance encounters, Joy meets the head buyer for K. Mart the suave and tough Neil Walker, underplayed by Bradley Cooper, who returns for his fourth collaboration with Jennifer Lawrence after Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Serena. The daring Joy persuades Walker to give her a chance doing a home shopping advert where she can have the golden opportunity to sell the miracle mop to Television consumers a precursor to the Home Shopping Network. Amidst many dodgy business dealings involving elusive suppliers, Joy soon matures into a really tough business woman despite doubts by Trudy who has been her main patron and financial backer.

Joy is an uneven yet quirky film about one daring woman in particular who embraces the American dream, despite the odds and eventually through sheer tenacity succeeds into become a multi-million dollar corporate business woman who embraces the Capitalist work ethic and proves that hard work and determination certainly pays off.

As a film, Joy is by no means David O. Russell’s best work, not nearly outshining Silver Linings Playbook or American Hustle, but what makes the film so watchable and enjoyable is Jennifer Lawrence’s fantastic performance, anchoring the narrative down despite a proliferation of flighty and less reliable characters. It is also refreshing to see Robert de Niro and Isabella Rossellini share so much screen time.

Joy is recommended viewing, a fantastic feel good film with a great supporting cast and a fine truly inspiring performance by Jennifer Lawrence who as usual under the directorial guidance of David O. Russell never disappoints.

Catherine Hardwicke’s film version of Red Riding Hood remains firmly in the realm of fantasy. With soft focus cinematography, clever use of primary colours, lush woods, breathtaking landscapes and a pale Valerie, donning her red hood, the teenage marketed fantasy tale is as entertaining as it is enduring.

The ever alluring Amanda Seyfried reprises a similar role to that in Diablo Cody’s film Jennifer’s Body as an innocent girl caught up in a community governed by terror. In Red Riding Hood, the village is terrorized by a werewolf whose first victim is Valerie’s sister.

Werewolf hunter Solomon and self proclaimed protector, played with relish by Gary Oldman arrives in the village to hunt the werewolf following the initial attack. Valerie known as Red Riding Hood played by Seyfred is torn between the Woodcutters son Peter played by Shiloh Fernandez and Henry, a nobleman son’s played by Max Irons, son of actor Jeremy Irons. This love triangle so similar to Hardwicke’s previous film Twilight is further complicated by the revelation that the werewolf in its human form is one of the villagers, and more closely hinted that that person comes from Valerie’s lineage. Virginia Madsen plays Valerie’s mother and Twilight saga star Billy Burke reprises a similar role to Bella’s father in the Twilight series and is given much more character development as an actor as Valerie’s uncontrollable father, Cesaire.

Suspicion is cast upon the reclusive Grandmother to Valerie, a wonderful cameo by veteran actress Julie Christie. Solomon uses Valerie who can communicate with the werewolf as bate in a wonderful midnight fire-ringed offering, red cape and all.

All folklore aside, the sacrificial offering of a Virgin to qualm the evil powers that threaten a community’s livelihood is found in many ethnographic communities mythology and in the case of Red Riding Hood, the origins of this Fairytale are grounded in the hapless virgin being ravaged by the brutal force of nature, symbolic in the werewolf or its human male form, with the spilling of first blood thematically tied up with the red cloak of Valerie as a dazzling signifier.

In Red Riding Hood, Hardwicke’s emphasis is firmly placed on the symbolism of the Red hood, looking ever more dazzling against the translucent face of Valerie especially in the scenes shot against the white snow covered slopes and helped by Seyfried’s superb eye popping performance as the only maiden able to lure the werewolf to reveal its human identity.

Hardwicke keeps the action fast paced and there is an economy of dialogue, characterization and setting, which makes Red Riding Hood an entertaining tale all packed into a 90 minute of film.

Fans of Twilight will no doubt love Red Riding Hood, but most notably the tale is brought vividly to the screen by a director who understands the complexities of the teenage film audience, an age group so brilliantly tackled and explored in Catherine Hardwicke’s previous films Lords of Dogtown and the Oscar nominated Thirteen.