Joy

"I don't need a prince," the young Joy Mangano tells her incredulous half-sister in writer/director David O Russell's fizzy feminist dramedy. Seen through her grandmother's eyes (Diane Ladd) and imbued with her pride and protectiveness, Joy transforms the inventor's life into a gorgeous but nevertheless gritty fairy tale. Despite the quietly showy camerawork and overriding feel of the fantastical, Mangano (played by Russell regular Jennifer Lawrence) is presented as a woman of credible, complex character - the only "unanxious presence" in a chaotic brood. At the height of her domestic despair, she happens upon an idea for a revolutionary mop and sets about making it happen. Russell mines Joy's fractious familial relations and the weird world of home shopping to amusing effect, while it's cheering to see a woman's career accomplishments placed at the fore. Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper are spot-on in support but a gutsy, understated Lawrence leads by example in a role that inspires great admiration. Rich with enchantment and fuelled by female determination, this story of the travails of an ordinary heroine is as delightful as its title suggests.