Redeeming Love (2022)

January 21, 2022 (ZA) • Romance, Drama, Western • 134m

Overview

A young couple's relationship clashes with the harsh realities of the California Gold Rush of 1850. Angel, experiencing love for the first time and facing demons unsurmountable, runs from the new life she doesn't believe she deserves. When Michael sets out to find her, Angel discovers that she indeed has the power to choose the life she wants.

Director

D.J. Caruso

Writers

Francine Rivers, Francine Rivers, D.J. Caruso

Top Billed

Abigail Cowen

Keywords

pedophilia child abuse california rape based on novel or book prayer san francisco, california love at first sight brothel gold rush sterility arson skinny dipping period drama evangelical christianity incest self-doubt crucifix death of mother frontier town misogyny courtship lynch mob illegitimate child brothel madam old testament 19th century traumatic childhood self reflection runaway bride child prostitution child selling sexual predator misandry christian film child sexual abuse christian faith independent film gender violence biblical psychological manipulation gold dust 1850s psychological drama absurd appreciative cliché comforting compassionate disrespectful domestic drama father daughter sex brother in law sister in law relationship

Where to watch

Free / Included

Netflix

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Top Billed Cast

Abigail Cowen

Angel

Tom Lewis

Michael

Eric Dane

Duke

Famke Janssen

Duchess

Logan Marshall-Green

Paul

Nina Dobrev

Mae

Livi Birch

Sarah Stafford

Jamie Lee O'Donnell

Lucky

Willie Watson

John Altman

Josh Taylor

Alex Stafford

Wu Ke-xi

Mai Ling

Brandon Auret

Magowan

Clyde Berning

Rab

Tanya van Graan

Sally

Milton Schorr

Colin

Martial Batchamen Tchana

Guardian

Arsema Thomas

Rebecca

Lauren McGregor

Elizabeth Altman

Daniah De Villiers

Miriam Altman

Tayah Abels

Ruthie Altman

Mera Munro

Newborn Baby Altman

Morgan Poynter

Infant Baby Altman

Talia Auret

Rosie

Jasmine Maylam

Nashi

Nancy Sekhokoane

Cleo

Paul Snodgrass

Murphy

Amy Louise Wilson

Susannah Axelrod

Brett Williams

Jonathan Axelrod

Nicholas Pauling

Virgil Harper

Conrad Kemp

Joseph Hochschild

Andrew Dennison

Captain Sorenson

Terri Lane

Minnie Rosse

Francesca Varrie Michel

Alice Boothe

Daniel Kühne

Angry John

Rubin Wissing

Young John

Skye Russell

Torie

Anja Taljaard

Renee

Glen Nel

Undertaker

Sean Coltman

Dr. Smith

Robert Coutts

Grimy Man

Stephen Jennings

Charles Connley

Kayla Van Tonder

Young Missionary Woman

Andrew Roux

Man in Line

Hanroux Van Niekerk

Stephen Hosea

Gita Galina

Dancer

Clellind Fivaz

Dancer

Nadine Theron

Dancer

Simone Inez Welgemoed

Dancer

Crew

Francine Rivers

Novel

Cindy Bond

Producer

D.J. Caruso

Director

Simon Swart

Producer

Brittany Yost

Producer

Francine Rivers

Executive Producer

Roma Downey

Executive Producer

Johnny Breedt

Production Design

Jim Page

Editor

Sheila Jaffe

Casting

Rogier Stoffers

Director of Photography

Geyer Kosinski

Executive Producer

Francine Rivers

Screenplay

Wayne Fitzjohn

Producer

D.J. Caruso

Screenplay

Francine Rivers

Book

David A.R. White

Producer

Michael Scott

Producer

Brian Tyler

Original Music Composer

Breton Vivian

Original Music Composer

Reviews

tmdb28039023

⭐ 2/10

August 28, 2022

Redeeming Love looks great. It features great locations shot with great cinematography, but that’s about all director D.J. Caruso can do to entice us to keep watching. It’s terrific to see a story unfolding in a non-CGI, true-to-life setting, even if it’s Cape Town standing in for California (but then some of the greatest westerns were filmed in Europe, so there’s that), but while this movie arguably achieves the western look, it fails to conjure up any sort of western feel.

The script concerns a Hooker with a Heart of Gold known as Angel, who is so sought after that the local Madame, who calls herself Duchess, holds a daily raffle to determine which lucky slack-jawed gold miners – there is more than one winner per day – get to hold sexual congress with her. This is such a cumbersome arrangement that it actually gets in the way of the plot, so that co-writers Francine Rivers and Caruso Hand Wave it not long after they have introduced it.

So-called “dirt farmer” Michael Hosea becomes smitten with Angel, so what does he do to get near her? Does he buy all the numbers in the raffle? Does he have the raffle rigged? No and no; he simply “pays double”. That’s it. Why this hasn’t occurred to at least some of the yokels who form a daily scrum outside the brothel is anybody’s guess. Another good question is where Michael, who is not a miner, finds enough “gold dust” to gain access to Angel on three different occasions.

Angel wants nothing to do with Michael owing to a deep-seated hatred and distrust of men, which is established in a series of flashbacks that are so many and so long they could make up an entire, separate movie all by themselves. They are also the reason that Redeeming Love unnecessarily breaks the 120-minute mark. But the oddest part about these flashbacks is that they show Angel escaping a life of compulsory whoredom only to enter a life of voluntary whoredom. Twice. Maybe even thrice, but that last time is once again against her will. In any case, it gets to be quite repetitive after a while.

It is only after Angel gets the tar beaten out of her by the Duchess’s lackey Magowan that she relents and agrees to marry Michael – but first he has to pay off her “debt” to the Duchess, and the irony that he literally buys Angel off in order to make an honest woman out of her is lost on Michael and Caruso alike.

Redeeming Love’s greatest achievement, other than its photography, is how well it masks its biblical pedigree. According to Wikipedia this is a “Christian Western” based on an homonymous novel by Rivers (unread by me, though it wouldn’t surprise if she had first published it under the pseudonym F.R. Ancine), which in turn is inspired by an obscure Old Testament book – not that you would even guess at any of this by watching the movie, and that’s actually a good thing. It may be long and boring, but at least it’s not overtly preachy.

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Status

Released

Original Language

Budget

$30,000,000

Revenue

$9,464,198

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Redeeming Love (2022)

Francine Rivers, Francine Rivers, D.J. Caruso

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

tmdb28039023

Recommended Movies

A Serbian Film

Midori

The Hunt

Silent Hill

Status

Original Language

Budget

Revenue

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