Jamaica is no stranger to the romantic comedy. The island has provided the backdrop for several love stories on screen, perhaps most famously How Stella Got Her Groove Back, which sent its American heroine to Jamaica in search of rest and ultimately romance.
But what happens when Jamaica isn’t simply the destination for somebody else’s love story?
Surprise! I Love You, the latest film from LAB Studios, puts Jamaican romance at the fore, drawing on our own particular flavour of love and relationships. It also joins a growing list of productions centring Jamaican experiences, while reflecting a local screen industry that is finding new ways to develop and distribute those stories.
In a recent Jamaicans.com feature, we explored how Jamaican stories are having a moment on screen, with new productions spanning crime noir, historical drama, migration, faith, folklore and the supernatural. Romance is part of that mix too. Donisha Prendergast’s Threads of Us centres the developing relationship between two ordinary Jamaicans, while using their story to explore wider themes of injustice and resilience.
Surprise! I Love You adds something different: a story where romance and comedy get to be the main event.
“I want to see every kind of Jamaican story on screen, because we are such a unique little place with big, incredible stories,” Tomlinson told Jamaicans.com. “It just so happens that there was a noticeable gap when it comes to movies that live strictly within the romance and comedy worlds.”
It is a desire that extends beyond romantic comedy. Oscar-nominated actor Delroy Lindo, who is of Jamaican heritage, recently spoke to the Jamaica Observer about the importance of showing different sides of Jamaica on screen. Discussing his own work in Jamaica, he said he wanted to tell a story that moved beyond familiar portrayals centred on violence and ganja and instead offered “a very, very different presentation” of the country.
In Surprise! I Love You, that different presentation happens to involve dating, heartbreak and finding the humour in it all, something Jamaicans know a thing or two about.
A Jamaican Take on the Rom-Com
The story follows Imani, an American woman who moves to Jamaica planning to surprise her long-distance boyfriend, convinced the grand romantic gesture will bring them closer.
Instead, she discovers he has been unfaithful.
Heartbroken and with her plans suddenly upended, Imani is forced to rethink the relationship and the future she had imagined. What follows is an unexpected Jamaican adventure involving friendship, heartbreak and a growing connection with Malik, a charming local who was definitely not part of the plan.
The premise contains many of the familiar ingredients of a rom-com, but co-writer Joleen Tomlinson says what happens after Imani’s plans fall apart is grounded in Jamaican life.
The character isn’t simply a tourist passing through. She has moved to Jamaica, and as her original reason for being there changes, she gets to experience the island “living like a local would”.
That includes “parring”, family time and, as Tomlinson puts it, “a taste of the best and worst of Jamaican men.”
For the writers, making Jamaica part of the story rather than simply an attractive backdrop came naturally.
“You can come here for one thing, and leave with much more than you ever imagined, and that’s what our character experiences,” Tomlinson said. “Crucial to the heart of the story is the fact that the beauty of the island and its people was a surprise she didn’t know she needed.”
The Writers Behind the Story
Surprise! I Love You came together through a collaborative writing process that stretched beyond Jamaica.
Tomlinson, Associate Creative Director at The LAB, co-wrote the film with Jesane Jackson from an original story by Nigerian freelance writer Daniel Uzodinma. Uzodinma has collaborated with LAB Studios on two completed projects. For Surprise! I Love You, Tomlinson developed the story beats, which Jackson used to construct the first draft. Tomlinson then returned to the screenplay to update dialogue, add jokes and make cuts based on production needs.
Jackson, who also directed the film, brings his own experience as a Jamaican writer, director and editor. His previous work includes Jenna in Law, which was selected to screen at the 2024 Essence Film Festival, as well as LAB Studios’ Happily Ever Awkward. That experience is part of the wider pool of Jamaican filmmaking talent The LAB is drawing on as it expands its production slate.
For Tomlinson, this film is another step in a screenwriting journey that began almost by accident.
Originally from Mandeville and now based in Kingston, Tomlinson taught English as a Second Language in Japan and Colombia, as well as at the University of the West Indies, before moving into advertising. She had written creatively since her teenage years, but her move into screenwriting began in 2020 when her workplace held a pitch competition.
Her concept won.
“So then I had to figure out how to write it,” she recalled.
Since then, Tomlinson has worked with LAB Studios in several capacities, from script supervision and marketing to participating in its writers’ lab. She describes herself as a passionate advocate for its mission of bringing Jamaican stories to the world.
That mission is part of a larger shift taking place within The LAB itself.
The LAB’s Evolution From Advertising to Entertainment
Long before LAB Studios began producing romantic comedies, The Limners and Bards Limited was already an established player in Jamaica’s advertising and creative industries.
Better known as The LAB, the company built its business in advertising, creative services and commercial production before expanding into original entertainment. That evolution has positioned The LAB not only to produce content for clients, but to create and own films, series and other Jamaican intellectual property.
In some ways, the direction seems particularly fitting given the company’s name. A limner is traditionally an artist or illustrator, while a bard is a poet or storyteller. As The LAB moves further into entertainment, those two ideas, image-making and storytelling, are increasingly at the centre of its business.
Its romantic comedy Happily Ever Awkward offered an early indication of how that model could work. LAB Studios reports that the film reached viewers across more than 70 countries and territories before expanding to international streaming platforms including Prime Video and Apple TV.
YouTube has been an important part of that strategy, giving the studio a direct route to audiences without relying solely on traditional film distribution. It also gives The LAB an opportunity to see how stories perform with audiences before pursuing additional distribution and licensing opportunities.
The shift reflects a broader blurring of the lines between advertising, content production and entertainment. As audiences increasingly consume entertainment through YouTube and mobile-first platforms, companies with existing production capabilities have opportunities to move beyond creating content for brands and towards developing entertainment and intellectual property of their own.
The LAB is already experimenting beyond traditional feature films. The Marriage Clause, for example, is a 34-episode vertical drama produced for mobile viewing and distributed internationally through Black-owned streaming platform MANSA. The project puts the Jamaican company within the growing market for shorter, serialised entertainment designed for the way audiences increasingly consume stories on their phones.
Tomlinson believes Jamaican stories have the potential to travel across those platforms and markets.
“Brand Jamaica is a cultural superpower when you think of its impact in comparison to the population of the island,” she said.
And the production slate continues to grow. Next up is Christmas in the Tropics, while Tomlinson has recently finished editing Happily Ever Awkward 2. She is also working on an office comedy and sketches for the Jamaican theatre revue Pitchy Patchy.
More Stories, More Opportunities
The collaboration behind Surprise! I Love You also shows how Jamaican stories can draw on creative partnerships beyond the island. Uzodinma brings a Nigerian perspective to the original story, while Jamaican writers Tomlinson and Jackson shaped it further for a film grounded in Jamaican characters, humour and everyday life. It is a collaboration across borders, but one that remains rooted in Black storytelling rather than Jamaica being interpreted primarily through an outside gaze.
LAB Studios is also adding to a growing body of screen credits for Jamaican writers, directors and actors. For an industry where opportunities to build sustained experience can be limited, more Jamaican productions mean more opportunities for local creatives to write, direct, perform and develop their craft, while audiences get to see Jamaican actors inhabiting a wider range of characters and stories.
The availability of talent itself may not be the problem. Lindo, speaking about Jamaica’s film industry, was emphatic: “Do not sleep on the talent that is here.” Some of that talent may still be raw, he acknowledged, but what it needs is “the nurturing” and “the support”. With that, he believes the talent already in Jamaica can have “global impact”.
Lindo’s argument extends beyond actors. He spoke about keeping production spending in Jamaica and using local actors, crew, hair and make-up professionals and other Jamaican vendors. Regular production, then, has the potential to do more than increase the number of Jamaican stories on screen. It can help build the ecosystem around them.
The ambition at LAB Studios is considerable. Tomlinson says the studio is building what it calls a “content engine”, drawing on a pool of talent that allows projects to move continually through development and production. Its eventual goal is to produce a new movie every month. In that sense, Surprise! I Love You is not simply another film on the company’s slate, but part of an attempt to create a sustained pipeline of Jamaican entertainment.
The challenge for any high-volume model is ensuring that increased output does not become content for content’s sake. More Jamaican films are valuable, but so too are well-developed characters, thoughtful writing and performances that give Jamaican actors something substantial to inhabit.
If The LAB can marry the efficiencies of its advertising and production background with that level of storytelling, its “content engine” could do more than fill YouTube feeds and streaming catalogues. For now, we wait and see. But with more Jamaican stories being made and more local talent getting the opportunity to tell them, these are exciting times for Jamaican film.
