Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy Parent Guide

All Joy (Shannon Thornton) has ever wanted is to be a fashion designer. Landing a job as an assistant at a New York fashion house looks like a big step in her career – until her designs are stolen by her diva boss.

Joy’s love life isn’t going well either. Though she loves romance novels, Joy has a rocky history with relationships, so she’s taking her budding relationship with her crush Colton (Aaron O’Connell) slowly. When Colton invites her to Colorado for the holidays, Joy thinks he’s finally read to commit, but when she arrives, she learns that he has a fiancée and no idea that she had feelings for him.

Humilated and upset, Joy heads for home, only to be thwarted by a winter storm that has grounded all flights. Her only option is a rental car, but as driving conditions worsen Joy finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, she’s rescued by Ridge (Tosin Morohunfola), a man who just wanted some time alone at his hunting cabin. Confined together by the storm, the two slowly open up to each other, discovering things about themselves they never imagined.

Generally speaking, I prefer to like the protagonist of whatever show I’m watching. It’s also a bonus to like at least some of the other characters, especially the romantic lead. There are many problems with Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy, but one of the most glaring is that Joy is an idiot, and not in a lovable way. She has the personality of a paper bag and the IQ of a taxidermied squirrel, which is an incredibly frustrating combination. Ridge has some smarts and a glimmer of personality, but his lack of emotional maturity and desperate need of therapy make him just as unappealing. Together, the two have nothing in common and no chemistry, but we’re supposed to root for them, even when they declare their love for each other after just one week. Didn’t we leave that trope behind in the 20th century? I give their relationship two months, tops.

The two lead actors seem to be trying their best, and their performances aren’t bad, but almost all of the characters surrounding them have the acting skills of a middle school drama club. The combination of wooden acting and unnatural dialogue make for an absolute slog of a production, with very little in the way of comedy to lighten the mood. This film has no tonal direction, offering a strange mix of melodrama, chemistry-free romance, and un-funny comic relief.

I do not recommend this film to anyone because it’s bland, frustrating, and horribly written. But in case you’re wondering I also can’t recommend it to most audiences because of the content concerns, most notably frequent recreational marijuana. I truly hope this production is swiftly buried under the mountain of holiday content coming to streaming right now, most of which is far better than this, and that’s saying a lot.

About author

Savannah Sillito

Savannah Sillito is a librarian with a master's in library science, a bachelor's degree in English, and a certificate in early childhood education. She enjoys nonfiction books, travel, and is a staunch proponent of the Oxford comma.