Babies bring out the soppy in most of us. Director Ben Taylor knows it all too well. He wrings out every bit of heartache, dismay and ecstasy of wanting a baby desperately and not having one for years: and then there she is, pink, wrinkled, bawling, staring accusingly at you, never mind if she was first ‘cultured’ in a test tube.
‘Joy’ is the dramatised true story of how three dogged souls birthed IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) in the 1970s despite public outcry against their ‘sin’, poor research funding and a host of other agonies — both personal and professional.
Cambridge biologist Robert Edwards (James Norton) teams up with obstetrician Dr Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy), whose ‘crazy’ laparoscopy technique is vital to the research. And then there is the embryologist Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie) from whose viewpoint this story is told — their guiding force, whom history almost forgot. For his efforts, Dr Edwards is panned by hectoring vicars and doubting scientists both, is called Dr Frankenstein and gets constant bad press for ‘playing God’. But the trio persist and it is hard to stop that tear at the end of this decidedly maudlin tribute, but one that has its heart in the right place.
The screenplay keeps it undemanding — a stronger injection of complexity wouldn’t have hurt. Still, the movie will go a long way in finally giving Purdy her due.
The real Dr Edwards fought tooth and nail to include her name in the commemorative plaque at Oldham, UK. Sadly, neither Dr Steptoe nor Purdy survived long enough to see the colossal difference IVF made to millions of families. Dr Edwards did though and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010.