Finding Joy

Plot

Joy lives and works in New York City for fashion designer Pat-Treek, who verbally abuses while stealing her design work. Her friends Ashley and Littia are supportive while she defends her treatment by Pat-Treek as just part of the industry experience. Ashley and Littia also disapprove of Colton, a man in Joy's life whose relationship with her is ambiguous, while he treats her like a friend Joy seems to believe they're in a deeper relationship.

After a show, Colton asks Joy to come with him to Colorado so she can meet his parents, telling her he also wants to ask her an important question once she's met them. Believing he's going to propose, she agrees to go. While Ashley has a more romantically optimistic opinion of the situation, Littia believes she's mistaken and will be hurt.

Joy arrives in Colorado and is picked up by Colton and his dad then taken back to Colton's parents home where he meets Colton's mom and Heather, whom she initially thinks is Colton's sister. As soon as they enter the house Colton tells Joy he wants to ask her something important, in front of his parents and Heather who's recording the scene. Colton then asks Joy to be his "best woman" because he and Heather are engaged, showing her decorations for an upcoming engagement party behind her. Shocked and humiliated Joy feigns exhaustion from the flight and asks to be excused to her room, where she calls Ashley and Littia and tells them she needs to leave immediately. She sneaks out from her second floor window and finds her way into town, goes to the airport and attempts to book a flight home. However, with a record-setting snowstorm bearing down on the area, there are no inbound or outbound flights for a few days. She resorts to renting a car, and while the rental clerk tries to caution her that the car isn't suitable for the coming weather, she insists on taking it anyway.

After driving for a period of time she becomes lost and ends up over a frozen lake. She gets out of the car to hopefully catch a signal on her phone but both she and the car fall through the ice and she loses consciousness.

When she awakens she is naked under a blanket in a small hunting cabin with a male occupant, mistaking her situation as an abduction. She runs outside screaming for help but the remote cabin is miles from anyone else. The other occupant, who introduces himself as Ridge Philips, kindly tries to nurse her back to health after her exposure. Ridge recounts events that Joy couldn't remember after driving on to the ice and, realizing he risked his own life to save hers, she thanks him.

Meanwhile back in New York, Ashley begins to worry when she can no longer track Joy's phone which stopped transmitting after it sank to the bottom of the lake. Back at Ridge's hunting cabin, Ridge has given Joy a change of clothes, and she takes in her surroundings including a photo above the fireplace of a woman. When Joy asks about her, Ridge doesn't respond.

Back at Colton's parents house, Colton and Heather discover Joy has left and while they worry for a moment, Colton notices an unread text from Joy telling him she had to leave. Him and Heather go back downstairs to tell Colton's parents Joy left and leave it at that. Meanwhile at Ridge's cabin, Joy struggles to adjust to the accommodations: being a vegan she doesn't eat meat which is all that Ridge has being in a hunting cabin. She also initially declines to use the outhouse when she needs to use the restroom. Ridge promises to drive her back to Ouray where she came from after the storm passes, though he notes it could be anywhere from a couple days to a week.

Joy offends Ridge when she criticizes his lifestyle and calls him "weird". Ridge then takes his hunting rifle and goes off to find more food, since he only had enough rations for himself. Later, he grows increasingly frustrated with Joy's comments and ignorance, and finally tells her that his mother died a couple of years prior, that she loved the cabin and the clothes Joy was wearing were hers. She angers him further when she steps outside to get firewood while wearing a quilt over herself, but the quilt catches a nail and tears. However, when he returns later that day from another hunting expedition she surprises him when she knew what kind of stitching to use when she repaired it. Ridge tells her the quilt has sentimental value because it was a gift from his mother, he then shows her the tag sewn on to the blanket, which reads "To Ridge From Joy", Joy being a Navajo friend of his mother. Ridge apologizes for his behavior and notes he struggles around the holidays because his mom died two days before Christmas.

Joy and Ridge get drunk together and share more about each other's lives, Joy divulges that she came to Colorado for Colton whom Ridge happens to know. Ridge shares about his family history, that he's estranged from his two brothers and father, the latter of whom he begrudges for remarrying too soon after his mom's death. Having begun to understand each other, the two develop an attraction and sleep together.

Meanwhile, Ashley and Littia are in contact with Colton and his family as well as law enforcement in Ouray to figure out where Joy is, who has now been missing for a week at that point. Colton tells Ashley and Littia that the sheriff will help them find Joy as soon as the storm breaks.

The storm finally breaks, and Ridge tells Joy they should be able to make the hike down to his truck so he can take her back to town. Joy's reaction upsets Ridge, who interprets her excitement to leave as casting him aside. They hike down the mountain where they meet the sheriff, Colton, Heather, Ashley, and Littia. They part ways without saying goodbye.

A month later, Joy has returned to New York and her job but is fired when her boss Claiborne receives an email showcasing Joy's design work from a 2012 journal she kept during college, proving the designs weren't Pat-Treek's, the email accusing the company of ignoring black designers. Joy laments to her friends that life was better where Ridge was, as she goes to leave the apartment Ridge is waiting at the front door with a bouquet. He tells her he took her advice to make amends with his dad and brothers and then came to see her. Still angry over losing her job, she moves to dismiss Ridge but he pleads for five minutes of her time. Speaking privately Ridge confesses he hasn't stopped thinking about her since she left. She admonishes him for not saying goodbye. Ridge recalls what Joy told him, that she always falls in love with men who don't love her back, and then professes his love for her. Seeming to not accept his apologies or profession of love, he tells her that he's staying in the city for one more night and flying home the next day. Before he can leave, however, Joy kisses him and they reconnect. Having lost her job, they agree that Joy will go back to Colorado with Ridge.

While Joy and Ridge were talking, Joy's office called asking for her to come to the office. They decide to stop by on their way out of town. Her boss praises additional work that her fashion school professor sent further proving that Pat-Treek was passing off her work as his own. He fires Pat-Treek and renames his clothing line after Joy since they were her designs to begin with. Joy turns down the job offer, thinking that a life in fashion wasn't what she thought it'd be. Joy and Ridge debate the job with Ridge telling her he doesn't want her to resent him in the future, admitting he wants to marry her. They agree that she needs to pursue her dream, and they'll live their lives in both New York and Colorado with Ridge fully supporting her career in fashion.

Joy returns to Claiborne's office and accepts the job offer on the condition that everyone receive better treatment. Later, Joy and Ridge get married in a boat house beside a Colorado lake.

Cast

Shannon Thornton as Joy

Tosin Morohunfola as Ridge

Brittany S. Hall as Ashley

Inayah as Littia

Aaron O'Connell as Colton

Eric Stanton Betts as Pat-Treek

Jeffery Thomas Johnson as David

A.J. Tannen as Claiborne

Natalie O'Connell as Heather

Whitney Goin as Wynona

Hugh B. Holub as Sheriff Jackson

Production

In February 2024, it was announced that filming had wrapped with Tyler Perry writing and directing a new movie that was previously titled Joy Ridge with Shannon Thornton and more were added to the cast.

Release

The film was released on November 5, 2025.