Publication Date: 07-25-2026

Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy (2025) review

Dir. Tyler Perry

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★

Tyler Perry has never been busier. He is currently juggling at least 10 TV shows on various networks and streaming services, and is still good to write/direct at least two movies a year. You can tell he’s busy because all-too-frequently he makes a slapdash, unremarkable drama like Finding Joy, which is so narratively and visually lifeless you want to check its pulse.

Unlike Mea Culpa, which was elevated in part by the silliness of some of its scenes, or Divorce in the Black, where Perry essentially took actor Cory Hardrict’s scorned character and filmed him like he was Michael Myers, Finding Joy isn’t buoyed by any kind of amiable cheesiness. It’s a sterile, straight-forward story of a woman — named Joy, shocker — whose life is saved by a hermetic lumberjack in the far-off wilderness of Colorado and now must spend time playing the role of “Captain Save a Hoe” for the initially ungrateful woman.

Joy is a gifted fashion designer, but allows herself to be walked on by the head of her company (Eric Stanton Betts), who steals her designs for his own personal line. Furthermore, she’s under the impression that her crush (Aaron O’Connell) likes her enough to take her to his family’s house in Colorado to meet them, but instead brings her along to show her that not only is he engaged, but he also wants her to play a significant role in his wedding.

So, in an act of infinite brilliance, Joy rents a rinky-poo car and winds up gets up caught in a vicious blizzard. She inadvertently drives onto a frozen lake, which cracks and sends her plunging to the depths below. She wakes up in a remote cabin owned by Ridge (Tosin Morohunfola), who was out hunting and rescued her — how the hell he saved her as she was falling at least 15 to 20-feet deep in icy water is a mystery. He’s a little cold and standoffish, for he’s used to being alone, but he’s also tall, buff, and handsome. And, baby, it’s cold outside, so there’s plenty of time for canoodling and long conversations between the two. That is, when Ridge isn’t busy making rabbit stew.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Joy’s goofball stoner friends, Littia (singer Inayah) and Ashley (Brittany S. Hall), and try to track down their friend to figure out where she ended up. I suppose this is Perry’s attempt to interject some humor into this melodramatic trite, but the two women’s cackling demeanor just proves tedious. It elongates a movie that already moves at the pace of sap on a tree in the wintertime.

One mildly amusing scene comes when Joy fails to wipe down the toilet-seat in an outhouse, and inadvertently ends up with her legs stuck to it ala Flick’s tongue in A Christmas Story. Ridge must come to her rescue yet again. The scene is meant to establish the ignorance most city dwellers harbor towards rugged, rustic living, but it’s just odd, as Perry’s steadfast seriousness strangles the material into playing like one of his soapy episodic dramas.

Finding Joy in Finding Joy isn’t difficult, for she’s present from the opening scene in the movie. The more difficult part is finding entertainment in it.

Starring: Shannon Thornton, Tosin Morohunfola, Inayah, Brittany S. Hall, Aaron O’Connell, and Eric Stanton Betts. Directed by: Tyler Perry.