It’s a unique feeling to be both mostly won over by and ultimately disappointed by a film. Yet cinema, even when it lets us down just as it builds us up, is often beautiful precisely for the sense of emotional limbo it creates. In the case of Netflix’s “Joy,” this stems from the sturdy yet rather standard execution of what is far from a standard moment in still relevant history. Not to be confused with the largely forgettable 2015 Jennifer Lawrence film of the same name, this more heartfelt historical drama centers on the creation of the first in vitro fertilization (IVF) baby, the years of research that went into the achievement and the lives of those working tirelessly to make such treatment possible. It’s also an unfortunately timely work as body autonomy and choice over birth, including IVF, again face an uncertain future.
Those doing the fighting in “Joy” are the scrappy real-life British trio of Jean Purdy, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, who we see working in the 1960s through the 1970s in a dinky little lab on what would become IVF. Their story is certainly worth telling and, for what it’s worth, this film provides a good enough recreation of it. It’s pleasant to a fault, aiming to ensure that the painful elements of history, science, sexism, closed-mindedness and motherhood go down easy, diluting potentially profound truths in the pursuit of being closer to crowd-pleasing. It’s a good trick and, with characters as well-acted as these, one you go along with.
The core of what makes this work is Purdy, played by a more understated yet still quite terrific Thomasin McKenzie of the recent “Eileen,” whose passion for the work and care for the women holds it all together when the film, as well as the research itself, threatens to come completely apart. However, in addition to having a personal tie to the outcome of their research, this comes at a cost, as she is cut off from her family and church who consider her profession to be ungodly.
Meanwhile, Edwards, played with almost boyish joy by James Norton of this year’s “Bob Marley: One Love,” is first introduced chasing a mouse, which tells you just about all you’ll need to know about him. We see occasional complexities, but he primarily serves as a playful counterbalance to Purdy. Then there is Patrick, embodied by the always great Bill Nighy who was last heard in this year’s joyous “The Wild Robot,” a delightfully ornery OBGYN who takes some convincing but also becomes part of the research that will define all of their respective lives and legacies.
While a rather weighty subject, this is handled with a light touch and, thus, “Joy” ends up feeling more than a little fleeting, like it could all slip through your fingers without you noticing. Directed by Ben Taylor, a television director by trade who previously directed episodes for the winning series “Sex Education,” it all looks and feels like a made-for-TV movie. Its heart is in the right place, but it remains averse to taking anything even remotely resembling a risk. Considering it’s about characters who each, in reality, did take great risks and did so despite many obstacles, this creates a disconnect that “Joy” can’t ever break free of. A bold story deserves a bold film, but this is not the one to provide that.
Even as the characters face constant scrutiny, a lack of resources, an unethical tabloid press and a scattering of interpersonal conflicts, never once do you doubt everything will be OK. Some moments outside the lab cut unexpectedly deep the longer it keeps at them, but just as many inside it don’t leave much of a mark when called to.
This all comes down to how writer Jack Thorne, who previously penned the script for the so-so sequel “Enola Holmes 2,” insists on keeping the story on safe emotional footing. There are many more painful questions that the film holds at a distance, keeping the conversations between Purdy and their patients oddly confined to quick chats that pass rather quickly. Rarely do we feel like we’re getting to know who these other characters are and where they are coming from other than in brief asides that make them into solely one-dimensional character traits. That “The Ovum Club,” which the women going through the tests begin calling themselves, are swapped out without much impact is a sign of how little the film invests in the textures outside the main trio. Even Tanya Moodie, a standout performer recently stealing scenes throughout the stellar second season of “Silo,” sees the grace and gravitas she brings go underutilized.
Where other recent well-crafted British historical dramas, like this year’s more expansive and complicated “Blitz,” can feel like they contain multiple movies all at once, “Joy” seems hesitant about even just the one it’s taking on. It moves at a quick pace, methodically throwing in hiccups in what comes across as cinematic storytelling by clockwork, ensuring everything comes just when you expect it while unfortunately not letting much linger in the mind. It’s all competently if flatly directed and written. There is a good chance you’ll chuckle when it wants you to and come close to tearing up, though when you look back on it, you’ll wonder what it all even amounted to.
It’s a film that succeeds at appealing to a broad audience, leaning heavily on its charming cast to give it heft. If McKenzie and Nighy were anything less than superb, there’s a good chance that “Joy” would fade away into nothing. Thankfully, like the figures they’re playing, they keep pushing onward and end up finding new life where there might otherwise be none.
