It's that time of year again. The theaters are packed with movies that are flaunting "based on a true story" title cards and we've got more on the way, but thanks to a little something called artistic license, very few strictly adhere to their source material. Take a look at In the Heart of the Sea, for example. The non-fiction book is absolutely brimming with rich detail about the demise of the Essex but you can only squeeze so much of it into a two-hour movie. Then you've also got Concussion. Every teeny, tiny detail in the movie isn't true to life, but director Peter Landesman did insist that the film is 100% "spiritually true."
Similarly, David O. Russell's Joy isn't a play-by-play of everything the real Joy Mangano experienced while trying to turn the Miracle Mop into a QVC hit, but it is very much inspired by her experience. Check out what she told me about working with Russell, what she thinks about the changes he made, and more in the video interview below. Joy hits theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. In case you missed it, click here to watch the cast of the film play "Would You Rather" and here for their advice on working with Russell.
Here’s the official synopsis for Joy:
JOY is the wild story of a family across four generations centered on the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence and the scars of love, pave the road in this intense emotional and human comedy about becoming a true boss of family and enterprise facing a world of unforgiving commerce. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces. Jennifer Lawrence stars, with Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd, and Virginia Madsen. Like David O. Russell’s previous films, Joy defies genre to tell a story of family, loyalty, and love.
