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Why ‘Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy’ fails to deliver holiday magic
The Star
|November 13, 2025
I LOVE the holiday season and, as cringy as they can be, I enjoy getting into the festivities by watching holiday movies.
SHANNON Thornton as Joy and Tosin Morohunfola as Ridge in Tyler Perry's Finding Joy.
From Home Alone to Love Actually and local favourites like How to Ruin Christmas and Yoh! Christmas, these films bring the nostalgia, comfort, and festive cheer that the season calls for.
But Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy, the brand-new Amazon Prime Video release, evoked nothing more than boredom.
The holiday romance, written and directed by the renowned American filmmaker, is packed with worn-out clichés and a lacklustre cast that spends most of the film being completely forgettable. It fails miserably at captivating with its opposites-attract storyline.
The film introduces us to Joy (played by Shannon Thornton) during a New York fashion show. Through her friends Ashley (Brittany S. Hall) and Littia (Inayah), we quickly learn that she’s an aspiring designer who is constantly overlooked and disrespected. The head of the label even steals her designs for the show, and although Joy is frustrated, she believes in paying her dues and that her hustle will eventually pay off.
This story is from the November 13, 2025 edition of The Star.
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