‘Redeeming Love’ Review: Between Heaven and a Brothel

There’s something about a cheesy romance movie that feeds into the serotonin of your brain. We’ve all watched one, we all have those guilty pleasures that act like cold cookie dough we know not to eat but it tastes pretty good. The niche little sect of whimsical romance, running through the airport movies are always a fun time and it’s hard to really have a stance on one.

Redeeming Love, directed by D.J. Caruso, is here to fill up your charcuterie board with cheese ball romance. It’s the bad girl (who’s truly got a heart of gold) taken away and loved properly by the good boy story line through and through. You know, it’s just that paperback novel in your local library that’s been checked out one too many times. And it actually is based on a 1991 novel by Francine Rivers.

The historical romance centers around Angel (played by Abigail Cowen of the Winx Saga) and the boy who’s going to take her away from all this, Michael (played by Tom Lewis). Angel has been through years of abuse and eventual prostitution headlining at the local brothel in town. Michael sees her one day after asking God for a wife and decides his new focus is to get Angel out of her circumstances and into his life. After whisking her away he learns of her past as Angel tries to navigate a life without hardship. You know, romance.

The story itself is actually biblically inspired. It’s the re-telling of the story of Gomer and Hosea from the Bible but set in the gold rush. So yes, there is a lot of biblical undertones to the entire film. Which is sort of not advertised at all and took me a little bit off guard. But it was interesting that a Moulin Rouge-esque marketed romance was inspired by the Bible. Who knew?

Redeeming Love is really nothing more than a fun romance you can watch in the background of a wine night. Actually it’s sort of a downer at times. The lead character Angel is handed everything she wants and keeps throwing it away. In the end I felt like Micheal, her suitor, should have just told her to get out of there and he could find someone who actually loved him. Maybe it’s just the romantic in me but when the lead lovers have one party who isn’t interested at all and keeps making that apparent…well don’t be together. But like I said, it’s just me.

The oddest thing about Redeeming Love was the sudden presence of Upgrade star and overall badass, Logan Marshall Green. He plays Micheal’s creepy brother in law. When he showed up on screen I couldn’t believe it. Logan Marshall Green! What was he doing here. I’m a huge fan of Upgrade so it was interesting to see him. I’d say overall he was the best actor in the whole film. I’d love to see more of him and it was a pleasant surprise to see his face.

Redeeming thoughts?

I can’t really tear this movie up because it’s not really presented as more than what it is. It’s a cheesy romance. There’s some lessons it tries to teach but overall it’s just two good looking people falling in love and somehow not getting dirty at all in a dirt filled western town. At times I wondered how could a woman’s hair look so good waking up a farm every day but that’s the magic of historical romance period pieces. Don’t ask questions, just have fun. That’s the redeeming quality of a silly romance. Fun.

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