Joy (2024) Parent Guide

Lousie Joy Brown. Her birth in 1978 triggered a media firestorm over the world’s first “test tube baby”. Since then, over 12 million babies have been born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the miraculous has become mundane. It’s easy to forget that IVF was once believed to be impossible, and, worse, immoral.

In 1968, Cambridge biologist Robert Edwards (James Norton) is having success with assisted reproduction for rats, but he wants to make the jump to humans. He hires a briskly capable nurse, Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie), as his lab manager, and the two set out to convince obstetrical surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy) that his skills in the controversial area of laparoscopic surgery are exactly what’s needed to harvest human eggs. With his team assembled, Bob strings together a program on patchy funding in a down-at-heel hospital.

Although childless women are clamoring to be accepted by the program, overall public opinion is hostile. Many churches object to the work, viewing assisted reproduction as “playing God”. Other scientists are opposed, concerned about birth defects and unanticipated negative outcomes. More popularly, the researchers are compared to Frankenstein. With such widespread opposition, research funding is hard to come by, so the ramshackle program continues, facing exhausted participants, pregnancy losses, and errors. It’s only in its second iteration, after an entire decade of failure, that a baby is finally born.

I am barely old enough to remember Louise Brown’s birth and the press coverage that followed. I had no idea, however, that the back story was so emotionally compelling. I was deeply touched by the commitment of Bob, Patrick, and Jean to try to find a way to alleviate the suffering of the infertile women who contacted them, desperate for a child. What surprised me even more was my emotional response to the women who participated in the program. Knowing that their chances of a successful pregnancy were vanishingly small, they endured hormone shots, surgical egg extractions, failed fertilizations, and failed pregnancies. They consoled themselves with the hope that women who came later would benefit from the knowledge gained from their losses. It’s a profound gift of both courage and generosity and I found myself tearing up as I watched them.

The film’s powerful emotional core is made possible by its superb cast. You can’t ever go wrong with Bill Nighy or Edward Norton, and both do an excellent job here. But the real star is Thomasin McKenzie whose Jean Purdy struggles with the demands of the job, her religious mother’s (Joanna Scanlan) condemnation of her work, and her own secret heartache. Somehow, Ms. McKenzie gives Jean a mask of calm over her turmoil and more amazingly, manages to reflect many of her mother’s facial expressions, making their relationship believable. It’s a real achievement.

Joy combines two of my favorite movie types – “issue” films and historical productions. It’s an excellent example of both and will appeal to mature viewers who want a movie that will make them think and then cheer out loud. Negative content is minor (most of the limited profanities appearing in the first scene), and is overshadowed by the movie’s themes of persistence, teamwork, sacrifice, and parenthood. It’s in the top tier of Netflix’s original films and will hopefully attract a large enough number of viewers to encourage the streaming giant to keep making films of this quality. Now, that would fill this weary critic’s heart with joy.