Although Joy often feels like a very old-fashioned movie, it hits a surprisingly modern note. The film, directed by Ben Taylor and written by Jack Thorne, reflected on the origins of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a medical procedure that is increasingly under fire in the U.S. by right-wing politicians, particularly heading into the impending presidential election. It’s set in England, where the technique was pioneered, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but it’s hard not to watch it through a contemporary lens as the real-life scientists and doctors portrayed in the film are themselves attacked for their efforts.
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JOY ★★★ (3/4 stars) |
Largely based on a true story, Joy follow nurse and embryologist Jean Purdy (a pitch-perfect Thomasin McKenzie) who works with scientist Robert Edwards (James Norton) and surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy) to create the world’s first test-tube baby. It requires dozens of female volunteers, undergoing horrific-looking hormone injections, and attempt after failed attempt. Jean is the emotional core of the story, unable to have children herself but willing to do everything in her power to help other women suffering from a similar condition. She’s rejected by her religious mother and their church for being part of the trials, but she’s never deterred by these potentially devastating hurdles. Thorne smartly allows Jean to drive the story, even though Purdy herself wasn’t recognized for her work for more than three decades. The film is as much a tribute to her as it is to the science.
Occasionally, Joy gets bogged down in that science, focusing on the test tubes rather than the human beings around them—although, perhaps, that’s also true of critics of IVF. The lab scenes aren’t as compelling as those outside them, particularly when Jean befriends and helps the women who are taking part in the trial. It’s not a spoiler to say that the team is eventually successful—how they get there is the lesser-known part of the tale—and it would be difficult to watch this movie from a political perspective. Taylor, whose primary experience has been in TV, depicts the critics, certainly, and there’s a very compelling scene where Robert is forced to debate the subject on television. It’s a media fervor when one of the women finally gets pregnant, but ultimately the film celebrates the ground-breaking achievement that allows infertile couples to start families.
In the U.S., IVF has been claimed as a divisive issue, galvanizing politicians who want to restrict women’s bodies in any way possible. It’s refreshing to see it depicted onscreen in a simpler, kinder way, reminding us that IVF is about helping people who want kids to have them and that being able to do so was a notable breakthrough in modern medicine. Joy spans nearly a decade, culminating in 1978 when Louise Joy Brown (from whom the film gets its title) was born, and Taylor and Thorne manage to include a significant amount of that history into two hours. It’s not a flashy movie, and the vintage aesthetic sometimes feels unnecessarily dour, but it makes for good storytelling that embraces both our past and present concerns at once. And sometimes it’s the unassuming movies that manage to sneak up on you.
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