Netflix's Joy follows what went into the landmark development of in-vitro fertilization, with a focus on IVF pioneer Jean Purdy

Joy provides a telling snapshot of the ways that societal attitudes hindered the progress of the IVF investigation and establishment of the Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic in Cambridge, and how these views personally impacted not only the team working on it but the women who courageously volunteered to take part — they called themselves the Ovum Club.

Not to be confused with 2015 Jennifer Lawrence movie, Joy on Netflix is a new 2024 movie starring Thomasin McKenzie that offers a crash course on the history of in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Directed by Ben Taylor,

Netflix’s period drama film ‘Joy’ chronicles the efforts of three pioneers to invent the in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure that paves the way for the birth of Louise Joy Brown. As the movie depicts,

Toward the end of Netflix’s “Joy,” the muffled cry of a newborn baby prompts a man and woman in a hospital to embrace out of pure bliss. They aren’t the parents, but they had as much to do with the birth as the mom and dad.

The new Netflix offering looks to shine a light on Jean Purdy in an emotional performance by Thomasin McKenzie

J oy (now on Netflix) doesn’t explicitly aim to right a historical blunder, but it ends up doing so anyway. Big picture, it’s the BOATS (Based On A True Story) saga of three s