Don't let the title here fool you. Despite having the word joy there, this isn't exactly the most carefree and cheery fare to watch. It's a mix of comedy and drama with the emphasis very much on the latter, but it's also one of those wonderful modern features that underlines an important point about being able to pick and choose your own family. Many may be aware of my own push back against the many "blood is thicker than water" and "you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family" sayings that have caused more harm than good throughout the decades, and Joyride presents a brilliant example of people finding their own strong familial bond after spending so much time pulling away from others.
Charlie Reid plays Mully, a young lad who ends up running away from his father (played by Lochlann O'Mearáin) after catching him stealing a load of charity money. Mully takes the money with him, determined to stay ahead of his father until he can figure out how to give it back. That's how he ends up driving away in a taxi that he thinks is empty, but it actually contains a small baby and one unhappy mother (Joy, played by Olivia Colman). Joy is heading to hand her baby over to her sister, she just doesn't think of herself as the maternal type, and Charlie decides they can stick together as he keeps thinking about how to put back the money that his dad stole. The baby needs care, the car needs fuel, and both Joy and Mully need to see a time when they can face the consequences of their actions.
This is actually the second film I have seen helmed by director Emer Reynolds, but the first was a fine documentary (The Farthest, which I recommend). Considering I had already loved Patrick's Day, the Terry McMahon film on which she was an editor, it seems that I was already quite the fan of Reynolds without realising it. I am not familiar with writer Ailbhe Keogan, but the fact that they also wrote a couple of episodes of the celebrated Bad Sisters leads me to believe that this well-constructed and occasionally beautiful screenplay is nicely in line with their other work.
It still essentially all boils down to the two central performances though, and both Reid and Colman are excellent. I generally expect excellence of Colman every time I see her now, even while she's working with an Irish accent (which I think she nails), and she doesn't disappoint, particularly in a scene that has her relating a moment from her childhood that explicitly ties in to every fear and worry that has become part of her character's DNA. Reid is the pleasant surprise, and it will be interesting to see whether or not he can continue getting good enough roles to maintain a positive trajectory in his acting career. He manages to be both sweet and foul-mouthed, sometimes in the same moment, and also shows the vulnerability barely hidden by his youthful cockiness and anger. O'Mearáin is happy to be depicted as a constant threat, the main villain of the piece, and does well in scenes that help you to root for the leads to keep themselves away from people you know will just ruin their fleeting moments of happiness.
I doubt this will be remembered in a year or two, it's a small-scale movie showing the external effects of ongoing internal struggles, but I hope that people will catch it while it's pretty easily available. Nothing is spectacular, aside from some of the acting, but it's all done very well, and both Reynolds and Keogan deserve praise for providing enough dry humour and little victories to make it easier to handle the more intense and downbeat moments.
7/10
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