Tyler Perry's latest cinematic offering, "Finding Joy," positions itself as a holiday-themed romance, yet it has been critically observed as a return to some of Perry’s earlier, more uneven filmmaking tendencies. Perry is renowned for his distinctive style, characterized by a wild amalgamation of tones that often oscillate dramatically between romance, madcap comedy, and intricate family drama, sometimes within a mere twenty-minute span. While Perry has demonstrated significant artistic evolution in recent years with more complex works like the historical fable "A Jazzman’s Blues" and the wartime drama "The Six Triple Eight," "Finding Joy" reportedly leans into a more formulaic and cliché-driven narrative. It is described as a "connect-the-dots" love story possessing an "unironic romance-novel baby-it’s-cold-outside vibe," suggesting a minimalist and predictable approach.

The central narrative unfurls as Joy (portrayed by Shannon Thornton), an aspiring fashion designer based in New York, faces an unforeseen peril. While driving through a fierce Colorado blizzard, her car veers off course and plunges through treacherous ice. Her miraculous rescue comes at the hands of Ridge (Tosin Morohunfola), a quintessential "Noble Rugged Deep-Voiced Dreamboat" who resides in a secluded cabin amidst the wilderness. Joy awakens to find herself warm and dry, under the watchful care of the stoic, handsome, and distinctly bearded Ridge, whom she aptly categorizes as a "Black lumberjack." Their initial interactions are marked by a slight unfriendliness, which swiftly dissipates over shared whiskey before a roaring fire, setting a highly predictable stage for a snowbound romance, where the audience is left merely "waiting for the ice — outside and between them — to thaw."

Joy’s arduous journey to Colorado is prefaced by a series of personal and professional disappointments. In her career, despite being a gifted designer with innate beauty and charisma, she allows herself to be a doormat, particularly under the employ of Pat-Treek (Eric Stanton Betts), a disdainful cad who shamelessly pilfers her vibrant designs. Her romantic life mirrors this pattern, as she consistently dates men who fail to reciprocate her affection. This is painfully illustrated by her pursuit of Colton (Aaron O’Connell) to his family's residence in Colorado, only to discover he is engaged and expects her to assume a role akin to his best man. Ridge, too, harbors his own reasons for reclusive living; his solitary existence is rooted in tender, deeply personal reasons connected to his late mother, whose name, by a poignant coincidence, was also Joy. Both protagonists are thus united by a "Perry-esque symmetry," sharing the common wound of recovering from relationships irrevocably broken by infidelity.

Although "Finding Joy" does not primarily function as a comedy, some levity is introduced through Joy’s friends back in New York: Littia (Inayah), a stoner, and Ashley (Brittany S. Hall), who presents a harder-bitten demeanor. A singular moment of rom-com absurdity occurs when Joy finds herself amusingly stuck to a frozen outhouse toilet seat, necessitating Ridge’s rather intimate and unexpected rescue. However, critical assessments largely indicate that any humor derived from the film is often unintentional. The overarching predictability of the plot – the inevitable emotional thaw between Joy and Ridge mirroring the melting external ice – is identified as a significant dramatic weakness. The fantastical "grand reversal of fortune" that befalls Joy upon her return to work is characterized as fairy-tale-esque, yet it ultimately resonates not as an enchanting romance but rather as "the adult version of kids’ stuff," failing to genuinely captivate or transport the viewer into its narrative world.