The romantic comedy-drama film Finding Joy is the latest of Tyler Perry’s productions to be released on Prime Video, and it gets to the point and wraps up its messaging without any extra frills. Following the life of an NYC designer named Joy, the film is about giving second chances to oneself and to love. While Finding Joy presents nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary, and its execution is no different from the usual films of its kind, it still makes for a somewhat mediocre watch, especially for fans of mindless and light-hearted comedy dramas.
Spoiler Alert
What is the film about?
Finding Joy begins at a fashion show in New York City, where the protagonist, Joy, looks on from the wings as the performers walk the ramp wearing clothes that she had designed over the years. But it is not a celebration of her accomplishment in the fashion industry, for Joy is just an employee, an assistant, in the company that is hosting the fashion show. Moreover, as her two best friends, Ashley and Littia, have a hard time accepting as they watch the show from among the audience, Joy’s boss is taking unfair credit for all the designs being presented. Although it was Joy who had painstakingly designed the clothes worn by the models, right from her time in fashion school to the recent past when she designed stuff for her employers, her boss, Pat-Treek, is now fully taking credit for all the spectacular work, essentially stealing her credibility.
But Joy does not want to take any steps against this theft being committed by her boss, as she wants to keep working for his company just so that she can make her place in the industry eventually. Ashley and Littia, who are also Joy’s roommates, are quite confused why she is putting up with Pat-Treek’s unruly behavior and theft and also often question another matter about their friend’s life. For some months now, Joy has been growing close to a friend named Colton, and now firmly believes that they are now dating, although there has been no discussion between them about it, and there are really no signs of even Colton being romantically interested in her either. As becomes clear from Ashley and Littia’s discussion, it is Joy who eagerly calls Colton to talk to him and invites him to places, with him never returning the favor. There also seems to be no physical intimacy between the two, as the only time Colton had spent the night at Joy’s place, he had slept on the couch the entire time.
But things do suddenly seem to take a turn after the show ends, when Colton invites Joy to spend a few days with his family back in Colorado so that she can get to know his parents and also answer a question that he has been meaning to ask her for some time. Joy and her friends are excited that Colton would surely ask her to marry him, or at least to be his girlfriend, and so she decides to travel to Colorado with him right away. Although Littia warns her friend to be cautious, Joy misunderstands her and feels she is only trying to be a spoilsport. However, Joy finds herself in an extremely uncomfortable situation at Colton’s family home, as he asks her to be his best man, technically best woman, at his wedding to his fiancée, Heather, and the only reason he introduces her to his parents is because he considers her to be a very close friend.
How does Joy meet Ridge?
Joy has the worst kind of heartbreak upon learning that Colton has no romantic interest in her, as getting caught in such situations has almost become like an unintentional habit of hers. As she reveals later, Joy always ends up falling in love with men who do not ultimately want to be with her and end up breaking up with her or outright cheating with someone else. Although Colton is not nearly as bad in this context, as he never made any false promises to Joy, she ends up getting hurt by the whole situation and also by the appalling inability of the man to read the signs and understand romantic interest. As a result, and after a discussion with her girls, she decides to leave Colton’s home unannounced, even though there is a dangerous snowstorm headed towards the place, since she cannot go through the emotional turmoil and embarrassment of spending time with the family, and even his fiancée. But as she quickly realizes, returning to New York City right now is not an easy option either, with all flights cancelled because of the rough weather.
After being told that she could be stuck in Colorado for at least three to four days, and maybe even a week, Joy decides to rent a car and drive all the way back home, which is definitely a very risky move, especially since the only car she can rent is a small hatchback with two-wheel drive. The car is absolutely not safe to be driven into a snowstorm, but Joy is too hurt and insulted to give any of the multiple warnings any serious consideration, and the only safety measure she takes is to let her friends keep tracking her location, and that too because they insist on it. But as she leaves the city and drives towards the freeway, Joy ends up taking an accidental detour, with the thick snowstorm now almost blinding her. The navigation in the car and her phone signal stop working, leaving her truly stranded when she accidentally locks herself outside the vehicle.
Without even realizing it, she had parked the car on a frozen lake, which is why the navigation had earlier warned her that there was no road ahead, and now the thin sheet of ice gives way under the weight of the car and the protagonist. Joy ends up falling into the freezing water of the lake and then gets trapped under the sheet of ice, and she soon passes out because of the extreme temperature and also out of panic and anxiety. Although it initially seems like something terrible might happen to her, she actually survives the accident and wakes up inside a small cabin in the presence of an unknown man. Joy immediately panics that she has been kidnapped, especially since she realizes that her wet clothes had been removed by the man, but ultimately calms down and makes acquaintance with her savior.
It was this man, Ridge, who had saved Joy from certain death, and he had brought her to his small hunting cabin located at a remote corner of the nearby forest. When Ridge had gone hunting in the forest the previous day, he had spotted Joy’s car blindly driving towards the lake in the snowstorm, and he had tried to warn her about the danger. But she never took notice of him, and so he kept following the car to then jump into the lake at the right time to save the protagonist from dying. There is initially a lot of insecurity and doubt in the minds of both the characters about each other, which makes for some comedic interactions between them. Ridge cannot comprehend why a sane person would drive a rented car during a snowstorm, and so he literally asks Joy whether she is psychologically troubled, and after hearing her story, he feels that she had taken the decision to commit suicide. Joy, on the other hand, cannot believe that a normal man would choose to live in a cabin so far from civilization and suspects that Ridge is actually a serial killer she must be wary of.
What is the reason for Ridge’s solitary existence?
As the two spend a few days together and get to know each other, Joy learns that there is a very specific reason behind Ridge’s solitary existence at the cabin, and this is when the matter is revealed to us as well. Hailing from Ouray, the same town in Colorado as Colton, Ridge had a very strong bond with his mother, who had passed away a couple of years earlier. His mother used to love celebrating festivities, and it was unfortunate that she had passed away only a few days before Christmas. The one thing that stuck with Ridge is how she loved visiting the cabin in the woods before the holiday season. Therefore, he started coming out to the cabin after her death to spend the entire holiday season here, all by himself, both in memory of his mother and to cherish the peace and calm amidst nature that she too enjoyed during her life.
But there’s more to Ridge’s backstory, which explains why he is still evidently hurt and lost in life, and he goes on to explain how he could never accept his father’s decision to remarry just six months after his mother’s passing. His two brothers did not object to the decision as much as Ridge, and so they are still on very good terms with their father, while he has completely cut all of them out of his life. During the festive season, his brothers still go back to their family home to spend time with their father, but Ridge stays away from them and comes to the cabin to spend the days alone with memories of his mother. While his extreme love and admiration for his late mother are quite evident, Ridge is also clearly stuck with the grief of her passing and has not been able to move on with his life.
This becomes clearer when he is terribly angry at Joy for having mistakenly torn a side of his favorite quilt, the only significant item made by his mother that he still has with him. The quilt bears great significance to him, as his mother had sewn it as a gift for him, and so he believes that it is now completely ruined, and he has lost the one last connection with his mother as well. However, things develop quite straightforwardly in Finding Joy, and so Ridge is pleasantly surprised when Joy is able to stitch up the torn part, as she happens to know the exact style of stitching because of her vast knowledge in fashion. To make things even more serious, Ridge reveals that his mother’s name was Joy as well, and so he believes that there is almost a sort of divine suggestion for them to get together. Although he had once been hurt in love by a girlfriend who had cheated on him, Joy explains that she has gone through numerous such heartbreaks, and despite them staying away from each other in the first few days, the two eventually get together and make love.
Does Joy return to New York City?
Things turn sour between them once again, though, when the weather clears up the next morning, and Joy expresses her desire to return to Ouray so that she can take a flight back home. Ridge takes this to be a suggestion that she does not want to have any emotional connection with her and had just wanted some casual physical intimacy. Feeling sad and let down, he accompanies Joy to the main road but hardly speaks to her, let alone explain how he had developed genuine feelings for her. During this whole time, Ashley and Littia had been desperately searching for Joy, and they had contacted Colton as well. Colton and his family had gotten in touch with the law, and a wide search was being carried out to find the missing woman. Led by Ridge, Joy is able to get to the main road, where vans from the sheriff’s department reach her, and she is finally reunited with Ashley and Littia. She explains to everyone how Ridge had saved her life and wants to thank him as well, but he is already on his way back to the cabin by this time, clearly wanting to hide his grief for having to leave Joy. Although it seems like Joy guesses what is up with Ridge, there is really nothing that she can do, and she returns to Ouray instead. Here, she forgives Colton for having misled her into believing that he had a romantic interest in her before taking a flight back to NYC, with her best friends by her side.
Does Joy get her job back?
About a month after her happy return home, Joy is hit with an unexpected development at her office when her boss, Pat-Treek, calls her for a serious conversation with Claiborne Rossmore, the owner of an illustrious fashion magazine that is the most significant client of the company. Claiborne reveals that an email had been sent to him from Joy’s computer, which stated that all the designs that Pat-Treek had been claiming to be his own were actually her creations. The email also accused the company of treating their Black employees unfairly, because of which Claiborne now wants to take action against Pat-Treek, but first he wants Joy to confirm the allegations. Completely taken aback by this sudden situation, Joy tries her best to keep impressing her boss and states that the designs were all Pat-Treek’s creations, which terribly angers Claiborne.
He instantly takes the decision to fire Joy, stating that she should not have sent such a duplicitous email in the first place, and he also dislikes the fact that she does not stand up for herself. Thus, Joy is left without a job, and she learns that it was her friend, Littia, who had sent the email to Claiborne, as Littia had always wanted to do something to prevent her friend from getting exploited by Pat-Treek. Littia is naturally left stunned upon learning that her attempt to do good has resulted in Joy getting fired. But the situation does turn in Joy’s favor once again, and while the film does not state whether Littia had any role to play in it, my guess is that she did once again get in touch with Claiborne, maybe even with Ridge chiming in.
In Finding Joy’s ending, Claiborne invites Joy back to the office to tell her that he had gotten her book of designs authenticated and had also gotten in touch with a professor of hers back from fashion school, who had sent even more designs made by her as proof of her creativity. As a result, Claiborne and the board members decide to fire Pat-Treek and make Joy the head of the company, even rebranding it as ‘Joy Lynne Designs.’ Although Joy initially rejects the proposal, stating that she does not want to work in this selfish industry anymore, Ridge makes her change her mind, making her understand how she will definitely regret this decision one day. Therefore, Joy finally gets her job back and even becomes the new head of the company.
Do Joy and Ridge stay together?
Finding Joy also has a happy ending in terms of the romantic angle, as Joy and Ridge finally end up together despite their momentary detachment from one another. A month after her return to NYC, Joy is suddenly visited by Ridge, who now professes his love for her and expresses his intense wish to spend his life with her. Earlier, Joy had advised Ridge to try and move on from his mother’s death and get back on good terms with his family, giving equal love, admiration, and understanding to his father as well. He now reveals that he has done the same by visiting his family home, which has greatly helped him get over his unresolved grief. Thus, Ridge is now ready to start life afresh with Joy by his side, and she agrees to give love one more chance, despite having been disappointed so many times before. But Finding Joy ends with scenes of Joy and Ridge getting married, which confirms that they are happily going to be together for the rest of their lives.
