Redeeming Love is a deliberately old fashioned romance… which includes a host of things an old-fashioned romance wouldn’t have had. It’s about a proustite (named Angel) working in a bordello in 1850 gold rush California. Her blonde hair and purty looks bring all the miners to the yard. When a young farmer asks God for a woman (with long legs and a loooooong jacket) he spots her and falls instantly in love. She’s a working girl? No problem… he pays for her time but only proposes marriage… and eventually they wind up together on his farm.

This is on multiple levels a bad film but it’s not a badly made film and it largely kept my attention. Sometimes I was more marveling at the misguided dopiness, but I wasn’t bored. Sure, sometimes it strained my patience and sure no time seems to pass yet all the time passes… it surely isn’t perfect and it is surely overly earnest.

The girl feels displaced in her new home on the range and wants to run away. She thinks she’s broken and deserves to be a whore. But the catalyst for running is very poorly expressed in both the acting and directing. A single issue pops up and, oops, time to run!

And the guy? He’s a giant piece of Wonder Bread in human form. Just a personality-free doormat. Someone stabs you in the back? Derp. Time to forgive and forget. Want to walk all over me? Seems like a thing to do! This is meant to be a torrid and tragic love affair but the movie doesn’t help us feel that. It’s going through the motions without really selling us on the tragedy or the passion.

The flick has a Christian theme occasionally running through it. I didn’t realize that at the start. Only at the end where we get a sudden “come to Jesus” moment does it really reveal its cards. But it’s not an insufferably sanctimonious, holier-than-though film. It’s got too many prostitutes, beatings, arson, and incest for that. I can’t imagine people who unironically watch faith-based films will like it.

I’m giving it a decent score. It’s not a terrible film because it’s not made terribly. It’s confused and confounding and maybe even misguided, but I found it watchable. I was amused and my eye may have rolled on numerous occasions, but there’s something barely worthy here. Just a little bit.

Score: 71