Joy
Three medical pioneers, against the odds, pull together to create the first IVF baby in Ben Taylor’s powerfully understated drama.
A matter of life: James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie
Image courtesy of Netflix.
In drama there can be few stories more emotive than those about the creation of life. Not in the sense of Frankenstein – although there is a hint of that here – but of the provision of a human child for those who wish to birth it and to care for it. Jean Purdy, a young nurse and embryologist, suffered silently from endometriosis, which prevented her from having children, a secret she withheld from everyone, including her own mother. And yet she was instrumental in helping twelve million women around the world to give birth, thanks to the magic of in vitro fertilisation.
It is an irony not lost in the new Netflix biographical drama Joy, which celebrates the contribution that yet another woman, through science, gave to the development of a better world – just like Marie Curie (cf. Radioactive) and Rosalind Franklin (cf. Anna Ziegler's stage play Photograph 51). As Purdy was ostracised by her community and shut out by her own dying mother, she persevered through sleepless nights to help young women, unlike herself, to conceive. And yet her phenomenal contribution to IVF was ignored by scientific circles until, in 2015 – thirty years after her death – a blue plaque was unveiled at the hospital where she worked, honouring her along with the pioneering surgeon Patrick Steptoe and the reproductive physiologist Robert Edwards.
Marking the feature directorial debut of Ben Taylor, best known for his work in TV (Catastrophe, Sex Education) and himself the father of children born in vitro, Joy is one of those true-life dramas that wields understatement like a mallet. The most mundane of statements detonate an enormous emotional charge because of the context in which they are said. After a moment of silence, the simple sentence, “I’m afraid science isn’t ready for you yet,” is devastating. And yet Jack Thorne’s flawlessly calibrated screenplay also recognises the power of the unsaid. For all aspiring screenwriters, his Joy should stand as an object lesson in true-life drama.
Providing the human face behind the science, Jack Thorne (whose credits include Wonder, Radioactive, Enola Holmes, The Swimmers), has shorn his text of redundant dramatic detours. Instead, he focuses on the lives of Purdy, Edwards and Steptoe as they push against the odds to provide women with the chance to embrace childbirth. Of course, everything stands in their way, from their own friends and colleagues, the press, the church and the medical profession, with only the expectation of the childless couples egging them on.
The New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie brings a low-key sweetness to the part of Purdy, who must choose between praying to God and playing God, rival mountains she is forced to climb. James Norton as Edwards is a suitable mesh of madness and charm as he expects the impossible from his young collaborator, while Bill Nighy as the unshakeable Steptoe is as dry as sandpaper and yet achingly human behind his austere façade. Everything else, from the period production design to an unobtrusive score from Steven Price, is impeccably balanced to serve the story. It is impossible not to be moved by these people who wanted to make a difference, even at the sacrifice of their own reputation and happiness.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, James Norton, Bill Nighy, Joanna Scanlan, Tanya Moodie, Rish Shah, Charlie Murphy, Ella Bruccoleri, Jemima Rooper, Ruth Madeley, Louisa Harland, Nicholas Rowe, Adrian Lukis, Toby Williams, Suzanne Burden, Richard Durden, Pip Torrens, Anastasia Hille, Simon Paisley Day, Miles Jupp, Eoin Duffy.
Dir Ben Taylor, Pro Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Screenplay Jack Thorne, Ph Jamie Cairney, Pro Des Alice Normington, Ed David Webb, Music Steven Price, Costumes Sinéad Kidao, Sound Glenn Freemantle, Dialect coaches Neil Swain and Hazel Holder.
Wildgaze/Pathé-Netflix.
114 mins. UK. 2024. UK and US Rel: 22 November 2024. Cert. 12A.
