- Content: “Honesty Is the Best Policy”
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| Nudity |
What You Need To Know:
JOY TO THE WORLD is sometimes predictable, but it’s funny, with a clever plot and some appealing characters. The heroine tries to cover up her lies with more lies, but she eventually has to face the truth. So, JOY TO THE WORLD has a strong Christian, moral worldview. It extols honesty, trust, kindness, repentance, reconciliation, and doing the right thing. Also, the birth of Jesus is mentioned in a positive light. However, the movie has five light profanities and a subplot that leads to a mistaken belief that adultery is occurring. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.
Content:
Strong Christian, moral worldview extols honesty, trust, kindness, repentance, reconciliation, and doing the right thing, with the heroine (who grew up in the foster care system) learning how to trust people instead of pushing them away to protect herself, plus the birth of Jesus is mentioned in a positive light;
Five OMG profanities, the word “mooch” is used, and a man says, “My family is freaking nuts”;
None;
A few light suggestive quotes about kissing and touching are said, and couples kiss each other multiple times;
None;
A couple drinks wine on multiple occasions and a wine cellar is seen;
No smoking or drugs,
The main character lives one big lie, different people lie and deceive each other, divorce is mentioned briefly, a child speaks disrespectfully to an adult, a mix-up leads to a mistaken belief that someone is committing adultery, and a woman watches and mentions the movie THE EXORCIST.
More Detail:
Joy has always longed for a family and loving husband, but she grew up in the foster care system where she was emotionally hurt on a regular basis. So, she’s opted to protect herself by letting no one get close enough to hurt her. She’s built a fake stage life for everyone to think she has it all together, when she really doesn’t.
This backfires one day as she’s giving a TV interview, and the host tells her that the studio is coming to film a special broadcast at her house so everyone can see what Christmas with her family looks like. This catches Joy off guard, and she panics as she realizes her whole charade is about to come crashing down.
Back at her house, Joy racks her brain frantically trying to think of a way out of the situation. She thinks her boss is unaware that she doesn’t have a family, and she would sorely disappoint and upset him if he found out. After a while, an idea starts to form in her mind. Why not hire people to be her family? She had already faked that she had a family; now, she just has to make the lie believable on camera. The problem is finding a man to be her husband for a day.
Joy has the right man for the job, however: her longtime friend and chauffeur, Max, who lives in her guest house. Max and Joy have been friends since way back. Max was interested in having a romance, but, when Joy wasn’t interested, they became good friends instead.
Surprisingly, Max is up for the job of being her fake husband for the day. So, after recruiting two neighbor children and a few older people as her parents, Joy’s ready to go. They even practice for a few days before the program, refining the act and preparing the house.
Along the way, Joy begins to realize there’s more to her relationship with Max than she thought. Also, maybe Max hasn’t really abandoned the idea of marrying her.
When the TV cameras finally start filming, things don’t go quite as planned. Joy’s world begins to finally fall apart right in front of her eyes. Eventually, Joy must decide whether to continue hiding and protecting herself from hurt or step out bravely in faith and do the right thing.
JOY TO THE WORLD is based on a popular classic Christmas movie from 1941 starring Barbara Stanwyck, Sidney Greenstreet and Dennis Morgan, CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT. JOY TO THE WORLD is a funny romantic comedy that keeps viewers engaged with its cute storyline and appealing characters. The two leads, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Chad Michael Murray, do the best job. That said, a few of the characters are a little one-dimensional. Also, despite the clever plot, the story is sometimes predictable in places. Also, it was hard to keep up with all the characters and their lies and interactions. However, the movie’s strong humor and irony help overcome those problems.
The plot in JOY TO THE WORLD rotates around the lie that Joy creates to both protect herself and promote herself to the world. However, despite her lies, Joy reaps the consequences and eventually must face the truth and make amends. The movie clearly shows her struggles with trusting people, especially those close to her, but it has a positive, satisfying resolution.
Overall, therefore, JOY TO THE WORLD has a strong Christian, moral worldview. It extols honesty, trust, kindness, repentance, reconciliation, and doing the right thing. Also, the birth of Jesus is mentioned in a positive light. However, the movie has five light profanities and a subplot that leads to a mistaken belief that adultery is occurring. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.
