Critics reviews

For all the novel excitement of its content, the film’s style doesn’t add much... Joy doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it satisfyingly brings these stories to the screen in a typically prosaic, no-fuss British manner.

Ms. McKenzie is terrific and carries much of the film, and director Taylor... seizes every opportunity to adorn it with period flavor... He also employs enough period pop hits that we get the point.

We learn more about Purdy and her own reasons for dedicating herself to the project, but it's not clear whether her storyline in the film is based on facts or dramatic license used to amplify the stakes. But McKenzie, always terrific, is outstanding here as the heart of the project and the film.

[Joy is] a refreshing twist on the “Great Man” trope... It’s the movie’s efforts to make this as digestible as possible for the audience through its light-hearted tone and simplistic dialogue that render it a movie you watch on Netflix with your parents and probably never think about again.

[Joy] is one of those pictures where the actors outdo the conventional material they are given to work with... The movie is most effective in creating a rooting interest for Purdy’s character, while the maestro Nighy gets a nice juicy monologue at the end that he of course makes a meal of.

“Joy” is not all joy. There is frustration and loss and tears along the way, but it is a triumphant film about the way humans can make the world better and how a baby’s cry can be a priceless gift.

The movie’s trailblazing spirit is offset by the formulaic nature of its design, and yet neither the deficiencies of Thorne’s script nor the made-for-TV feeling of Taylor’s direction ever fully obscure the enduringly relevant principle they exist to serve.

The film's a touch cosy, with some Richard Curtis-style humour, but the acting is excellent across the board... McKenzie gives a lovely turn in the lead role and director Ben Taylor nails the charming period detail. On an emotional level, Joy really delivers.

It’s an atmospherically dour period piece that captures the dispiriting colour palettes of 1970s Britain evocatively. Curiously, though, given the emotive subject matter, the film chooses to keep the potential mothers at arm’s length as characters, losing tear-jerking opportunities as a consequence.

Though director Ben Taylor and screenwriter Jack Thorne go easy on scenes of laboratory triumphs, they also pad Joy’s first half with picturesque scenes of the heroine cycling around Cambridge University and upbeat pop needle-drops.

You feel the film taking a deep breath at the task it has set itself: broad-strokes storytelling that also treats the audience as smart and interested enough for clinical detail... Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/9d69831c-7f7e-4025-a7cd-74ecbc2c2f9a Director Ben Taylor comes to Joy from TV, and a gulf can open up between the film’s cosy vibe and the characters’ radical ambition. But the small scale makes sense too: underscoring the sweetly human nature of the project.

The true-life tale of the world’s first IVF baby – a radical evolution for medical science – has become a prim, diligent Britflick which majors in knitwear, needle-drops, and cycling around Cambridge. [Joy] renders a fascinating story into something exasperatingly formulaic, as if they asked a Netflix algorithm to write and direct it.