Joy lacks the charm of a real rag-mop-to-riches story

Joy is “inspired by the true stories of daring women,” the film’s opening credits promise. “One in particular.” That inspiration is cable TV shopping maven, Joy Mangano. In the title role, Jennifer Lawrence revives her familiar girl-versus-world movie persona. But instead of defying tyrants from behind a bow and arrow, Lawrence as Joy rises to power on a mop.

Moviegoers also will note similarities to Lawrence’s breakout, Oscar-nominated role. In Winter’s Bone, teenage Ree cared for her two younger siblings and depressed mother while searching an impoverished, methamphetamine-producing Ozark Mountains community for her father. Joy’s mid-1980s, Long Island family situation is arguably more dysfunctional than Ree’s.

Under one dilapidated roof reside Joy’s two young children, ex-husband Tony (Édgar Ramírez), sickly grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd), and mother Terry (Virginia Madsen), who watches soap operas around the clock. And when his girlfriend kicks him out of her house, Joy’s father, Rudy (Robert De Niro), moves into Joy’s basement with Tony.

All of Joy’s household depend on her. She supports the family by working at an airline ticket counter and keeping the books for her father’s metal business. And at just the right moments, she patiently guides her emotionally unstable relations back to serenity.

“You were born to be the unanxious presence in the room,” Mimi tells her granddaughter.

More than a tireless provider, though, Joy is an imaginative inventor. One day, she sketches in crayon a self-wringing, machine-washable “Miracle Mop.” With a large investment from her father’s rich, new girlfriend (Isabella Rossellini), Joy sets up a small factory in her father’s metal shop to assemble the mops. Shaped by years of experience managing tricky family relationships, she successfully handles treacherous business partnerships. As she holds her extended family together, she battles an unscrupulous parts supplier and navigates a frustrating patent dispute.

Writer-director David O. Russell can take some credit for directing Lawrence into another remarkable performance, in which she walks a tight line between collapse and courage. Her face betrays Joy’s many burdens, but a self-assured stride marks Joy’s resolve.

Russell also brings an apt color scheme to the film (rated PG-13 for brief strong language). A joyless gray clings to the neighborhood and metal shop, while ambers and off-whites paste the interior of Joy’s house—perhaps clues as to why Joy was destined to invent a mop.

Moviegoers must be as resourceful as Joy to manage the large cast of engaging characters, which includes a faithful childhood friend (Dascha Polanco), a jealous half-sister (Elisabeth Röhm), and a star-struck executive (Bradley Cooper) from the nascent QVC cable network. But the engrossing production sometimes feels as surreal as Terry’s soap operas (of which the film shows several scenes) and the rotating QVC stage where Joy hawks her mop (to tremendous commercial success).

Still, in this cinematic version of her life (which doesn’t address Joy’s religious beliefs, if any), something’s not right. Although Joy demonstrates many of the qualities Christians recognize as the fruit of the Spirit, one seems to be missing—one in particular.