User reviews

As a grandfather of two delightful children born as a result of my daughter's IVF treatment I found this to be a fascinating and moving film to watch. The lead actors all gave excellent performances and the story was well told. I well remember the publicity surrounding Louise's birth as my son was born a few months later. Other reviewers have pointed out some inaccuracies in the story but not knowing those didn't detract from the enjoyment of the film. The perseverance and dedication of Patrick Steptoe, Bob Edwards and Jean Purdy to develop the techniques required to succeed was well portrayed as well as the difficulties they faced with opposition from the church and medical establishment together with the sensational reporting of the tabloid press.

Its hard to explain how much I love this film, except it is just so incredibly personal. I was born in the same hospital in Oldham in 1953, and had my Appendix out when I was 8. Even Patrick Steptoe, played brilliantly by Bill Nighy in Cambridge says the Hospital in Oldham is better than here.

This film is mostly about a Woman, who wants to have a Baby - and eventually does, through new medical techniques developed mostly in Cambridge and Oldham - and it worked for the first time.

Can you imagine the Joy in all of that, not just for The Mother, and The Scientists who did it, but also the actors making this film, and me from Oldham watching it.

The film follows the journey of the three people - visionary scientist Robert Edwards, innovative surgeon Patrick Steptoe, and pioneering nurse Jean Purdy - who teamed up to make the procedure a reality, with special focus placed on the often overlooked role Purdy played in the breakthrough. As someone who is currently 34 weeks pregnant through IVF after years of infertility, I found this film deeply moving and beautifully documented. It gave me a renewed appreciation for the people who have made IVF possible. While my personal experience might make me a bit biased towards this film, I'm confident this film will resonate with anyone who has undergone infertility treatments. Highly recommend!

Loved every second of it, pacing was perfect. Narrative moved so smoothly filled with emotion and human beauty. In a world filled with harm and brutality, stories like these renews my faith in humanity and its purity to make good. It shows how inventions that people take for granted had been so unattainable so far away, until someone somewhere had the patience to make it true and change history for millions of people.

If you love appreciation of hard work, of virtue, of scientific development that changed the world as we know. This is a must watch that truly deserve your time and. Couldn't recommend it enough.

The movie is a dramatization, so some forgiveness is necessary. But I object to some of the scientific inaccuracies, and especially the slandering of the character of Jean Purdy. How do I know this? Because I am the last living member of the original 'team' that developed human IVF. Jean Purdy, Patrick Steptoe and Bob Edwards are all deceased. Bob and I succeeded in demonstrating the first human IVF (in his lab) in 1968; everything else shown in the movie followed that. So, I am very familiar with the succeeding events that led to the birth of Louise Brown in 1978. Yet, the movie makers did not bother to contact me to check for inaccuracies in their film. That is not hubris - I am a scientist and detest false information.

Jean Purdy was my friend and colleague; I regard her as a heroine who devoted her short life to the alleviation of infertility. So, I am especially outraged at her portrayal in the movie as a woman who 'slept around but couldn't get pregnant herself' as she is shown telling her mum. On the contrary, Jeannie was a devout Christian who told me that she was 'saving herself for marriage.' The movie's depiction of her intimate relationship with a fellow lab researcher 'Arun' is, to the best of my knowledge, pure fiction, designed to enrich the narrative, and in that case, it is slanderous.

When Bob Edwards was ready to give up on the 'impossible' goal of human IVF in the mid 1970's, it was Jean Purdy who persuaded him, and Steptoe, to continue, and it was she who located Bourn Hall UK as the site of the world's first IVF clinic. Most likely, the parents of the estimated 20 million IVF babies now born worldwide have no idea how much they owe to Jean Purdy. This movie does not do justice to her dedication and service to humanity. I wish the movie-makers had done more research before they produced this inaccurate portrayal of her role. I would have been glad to set them straight, for Jeannie's sake at least.

RIP, Jeannie: 'The World's First IVF Embryologist' (on her tombstone in Grantchester, Cambridge, UK)

Barry Bavister Ph. D. Cambridge University, 1972.

What a beautiful film. In times like these, where it feels like women's choices are taking a step backwards, this movie is so important.

Even if you aren't familiar with the science of IVF, this is such an incredible story of adversity. The scientists who risked everything. The brave women who paved the way for the future. It was a very emotional.

Being an IVF patient myself, I felt an immense sense of gratitude for everyone involved and it was fascinating to see how it all began.

Thank you so much to the filmmakers and actors who gave world-class performances. I can't fault the movie at all. It's a must-watch.

Joy is a straight down the middle rendition of a life changing breakthrough in science and the struggles to achieve it when so many people are against its existence. It's a classic example of a true story that changed everything being turned into a film as formulaic as possible. Thanks to a very charming cast and the emotional heft that just comes with telling this fact based story competently it remains a really good watch.

The three leads are all great. Thomasin McKenzie gets the most to work as this is her film from her perspective. The struggles she has come from every angle and her perseverance only makes it more investing. James Norton brings a lot of energy as someone who has a real desire to make the world a better place which makes it heartbreaking to see him feel defeated. Bill Nighy is in fine form thanks to another one of his lovely genial roles he's becoming increasingly popular with.

Ben Taylor's direction brings a nice amount of playfulness to the visuals early on before quickly devolving into something a lot less noticeable in an inoffensive fashion. It starts off with an unexpected Richard Curtis feel that soon disappears but it maintains a sturdy and well made quality throughout. The soundtrack contains a few well implemented songs that enhance the generally warm nature of the film and match the perfectly chosen title.

This is being portrayed as 'feel good' film about the modern beginnings of the IVF technique and to revisit the role in its inception played by a forgotten female lab technician.

In fact the roots of a now vast profit driven industry are more sinister, and go back to a checkered past not remotely eluded to here. Where the usual..ahh look at the baby photos and happy families narrative, obscure that history by design!

Bill Nighy is as always, well cast as co-lead, lending the film weight, where even with his advancing years, he can always be relied upon to give a solid performance. It has a similar feel to the story of the Enigma codebreakers of Bletchley Park.

However, instead of painting a one sided picture of IVF as innately good vs anyone who opposed it as intrinsically bad...it needed to give an updated context for today, looking at where the IVF industry is heading in the not too distant future. Especially since emerging biotechnologies such as CRISPR and Ectogenesis didn't exist back then, and as it's said.. The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions!