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

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.

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.

Toward the end of Netflix’s “Joy,” the muffled cry of a newborn baby prompts a man and woman in a hospital to embrace.

Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie star in this drama, set in 1960s and ’70s England, about the trial-and-error journey that led to the first successful instance of in-vitro fertilization.

Inspired by the true story of the development of the first IVF baby, Joy accurately retraces the steps that brought the scientific breakthrough.