Redeeming Love Review Round-up

I've not had the opportunity to see the new Hosea/Gomer film released this weekend, Redeeming Love (2022), but a number of outlets have reviewed it so I thought I would link to the more key articles and highlight a few excerpts.

Larger Publications
The film has been reviewed by a number of larger publications in the USA. Variety's Guy Lodge calls it "long, lumbering and ideologically retrograde" and finds it's links to the Book of Hosea "superficial". He criticises the overall tone for being "drippy", "teen" and typified by "Hallmark sunrises". Finding the repetitive plot tedious particularly excoriating the "together-then-apart dance" between it's lead characters which features "no fewer than three separate shots of a wedding ring being left on a dresser." Moreover he asks a more foundational question "Does Angel need to be 'redeemed' by love, or does she just need men to cut her a break?" and jokes that "its gender politics, at least, are authentically immersed in the 19th century." 

Katie Walsh, the reviewer for the LA Times is not alone in drawing attention to the Shakespeare quote that opens the film ("All that glitters is not gold") quipping that it "doesn’t yield any cinematic riches". She is the only reviewer I've read so far to pick up one of the things I found troubling about the trailer, specifically that the film could be interpreted as making its hero Michael...

"an isolated religious zealot who believes he receives a message from God that a local sex worker is intended to be his wife, spurring him to kidnap her from the brothel while she’s in a weakened state and press her into a life of wifely duties though she attempts repeatedly to escape."

Indeed she concludes that the film "plays like 'tradwife' fan fiction" and worries about why the decision to adapt this source material was made, now of all times. Walsh's review also appears at the Chicago Tribune.

The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan only gives the film two stars out of four, but is perhaps the most positive I have come across. He praises director D.J. Caruso 's "slick work" and calls the film  "an engrossing but superficial epic" ultimately finding it "an incident-rich saga populated by cardboard heroes and villains and outfitted with greeting-card sentiments and cartoon villainy".

Christian Critics
In terms of more specifically Christian reviewers, Peter Chattaway has, as ever,  been all over this one, trailing Friday's release with one post looking at older more incidental uses of the Hosea/Gomer story and another looking at 21st century adaptations of the story including Oversold (2008), Amazing Love (2012) and Hosea (2018). Peter's review of the film itself is here and one of its main complaints is that the Hosea character (Michael Hosea) is not sufficiently developed:

But if you’re going to ditch the prophetic message that is the Book of Hosea’s point, then at the very least I’d like to see some realistic human behaviour; if you’re going to tell a story about a man who dedicates his life to a complete stranger’s sexual salvation, you have to give me some sense of who he is and why he’s doing what he does.... if I’m going to believe in a relationship, I need to believe in both partners as people. Instead, what we get feels like mere wish fulfillment.

Peter's piece also ends with a few notes similar to Peter's treatment of the other "Hosea/Gomer" films. For what it's worth I find the male character's name notable for two reasons. Firstly it just sounds bad. Michael Hosea? But also in Christian tradition Michael happens to be the name of the third original archangel after Gabriel and Lucifer (though the non-canonical Book of Enoch mentions 7). Given that the lead female character here is called Angel, the association of "The Duke" with the devil (i.e. Lucifer) and Michael's perfection this seems an unlikely coincidence. After all, the Archangel Michael is known for fighting for good over evil, defending God's people and empowering them.

Another review from a Christian perspective is that of  Mike McGranaghan for Aisle Seat. Going for the jugular right away ("Redeeming Love is the most sexually-charged faith-based film I've ever seen. And, frankly, one of the most misguided.") and condemns its unenlightened and "relentlessly  old-fashioned" story of "a whore who's lucky to have a good man to rescue her" as well as it's use of shocking plot points just to grab attention.

Leah MarieAnn Klett, the editor of Christian Post disagrees arguing "Redeeming Love tries hard to deal gently with tough topics, but there’s no way to sugarcoat prostitution, sex trafficking, murder and incest." Ultimately, though, Klett finds that the "film’s redemptive and biblical themes are evident, but ... overshadowed by explicit, sometimes unnecessary content" suggesting "conscientious viewers would do well to pass." 

Given its usual support for Christian Movies I thought MovieGuide might be a little more in favour and it does support its "strong Christian worldview". However it ultimately summarises the film as "lackluster and unnecessarily graphic". Reviews like this make it interesting to see how the film will perform at the box office. It's clearly pushing the envelope for Christian movies/faith-based films, but it's based on existing IP - Francine Rivers’ 1991 novel which was a major hit in large part due to Christians - and it may be that this same audience likes this kind of content despite the warnings of its film critics. At the moment the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 95%. I don't think it's too much of  a stretch to assume that the majority of those viewers will be professing Christians.

Other Web Critics
Elsewhere on the web Nell Minow's 2-star review for rogerebert.com nevertheless notes how "the novel has a lot of passionate fans who will want the movie to be exactly what they imagined on the page, and that is what they will find... [it's] a story that fits comfortably and reassuringly into a particular spiritual world view." Likewise while the film's numerous instances of sexual abuse may shock some, interestingly Minow cleverly observes how this is perhaps in keeping with "the 'Hell House'-style fascination with (and amplification of) the sins of the world". She does note some positives though especially such as its "beautiful settings" and the way that leads Abigail Cowan and Tom Lewis "make a very appealing couple, warm and natural".

If the above reviews seem bad then Anna Venarchik for The Daily Beast goes even further, even the url pulls no punches ("evangelicalisms-toxic-slut-shaming-tale-gets-the-hollywood-treatment"). Venarchik is seemingly more familiar with the Rivers' novel than many of the above reviewers which allows her to highlight things that are not explicit in the film, but nevertheless there in the subtext (for many at least, including the filmmakers) such as Michael's unintentionally hilarious description of Abigail as "a soiled dove". She ends pondering "the fates of the harlots who didn’t catch the farmer’s eye" and how the writers seem to "confirm the correlation between beauty and a woman’s prospects—the unredeemed are consumed in a hell this side of death when they perish in a fire at the brothel." It's a great review which expertly tempers its ire at the film's problematic worldview with biting wit.

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If I can find time I might try and write some of my own thoughts about all this, albeit based on little more than the above reviews, the trailer and my knowledge of Hosea. I'm particularly intrigued by the way that Hosea and Gomer were largely absent from our screens for the first 11 decades of  cinema history and have now been depicted four times in the last 15 years.

I mentioned above the film's audience score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.  I should note that the critics score for Redeeming Love on Rotten Tomatoes is at the other extreme, 11%. IMDb currently has it as 7.3, but it's metascore is 31%. Edit: Box Office Mojo is recording an opening weekend domestic take of $3.7 million. That's slightly less than the $4.2 million that Christmas with the Chosen made but, as Peter Chattaway reports, it's still the top ranking new movie for last week and highest film that isn't a sequel.

It's hardly the first film to divide audiences from critics, but it's interesting to see that even the concerns of Christian critics are not putting off "the faithful". I'm curious to know how church leaders are framing this. Do they share the concerns of critics about the sexual content (or the depiction of women) or the apparent early enthusiasm of everyday churchgoers?

Redeeming Love coming in 2022 feat. Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, Famke Janssen

Over at FilmChat, Peter has news of the release date for Redeeming Love, a sort-of modernised take on the book of Hosea, as it's set in 1850s California. The release, from Universal Pictures, has been delayed due to the pandemic (I made a passing reference to it in my book and it's probably too late now to get that corrected), but is now lined up for 21st January 2022. 

Whilst the film is an adaptation of Hosea, it's come by way of Francine Rivers's 1991 best-selling novel of the same name. The plot, of the novel at least, revolves around Sarah/Angel, a sexually-abused orphan who is forced into becoming a sex-worker who one day meets Michael Hosea who has heard God tell him to marry her. There's a trailer on YouTube now, which reveals fairly little.

While the stars are relatively unknown there are a couple of bigger names attached to the cast. Famke Janssen, who played Jean Grey/Phoenix in several episodes in the X-Men franchise and Liam Neeson's ex-wife in the Taken trilogy, is the biggest star. Janssen also featured in the biblical satire The Ten (2007). Interestingly Cindy Bond, who was a producer for another 2007 Moses-related film, the animated The Ten Commandments, as well as a string of other Christian movies, is also a producer here.

The big news, for UK folk at least, is that it appears that Derry Girls star Jamie-Lee O'Donnell is playing Angel's best friend Lucky. I'm not sure how far Derry Girls has travelled, but O'Donnell is now such a big star in the UK (and presumably the Republic of Ireland) that she's seemingly the main star of the forthcoming Channel 4 drama Screw (still not listed on IMDb). 

Other notable names who are involved include director D.J. Caruso, who directed XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), Disturbia (2007) as well as an episode of Smallville way back in 2002; and the IMDb lists The Bible's (2013) Roma Downey as an executive producer, though Peter seems to have reason think she is no longer involved with the project.

Having been largely overlooked by 20th century filmmakers, this is at least the fourth Hosea film to be released this year including 2008's Oversold. Perhaps I'll make some comments on all that another day.

The official website is here.

Review: Oversold

On the surface Paul Morrell and Dave Cowan's Oversold is seemingly an unlikely sounding tale of a Pastor who travels to Vegas, falls in love with a stripper (though he's unaware of her profession at the time), and seeks to free her from the situation in which she is ensnared. But, it's deeper than that, Oversold is a multi-layered film which is not only a modernisation of the story of the Old Testament prophet Hosea, but also of Jesus's redemption of us.

At the centre of the story is Joshua, a young pastor travelling to Vegas to reconnect with his step-brother Ethan, and Sophi, who works in one of Ethan's clubs. Unaware of their connection, the two meet by chance, and, quickly fall in love.

A popular plot device in many romantic films is that of 'the hidden secret' such as Gregory Peck's undercover reporter in Roman Holiday, Richard Curtis in Some Like it Hot, or any one of the portrayals of Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre. Essentially it's a reflection of the way we all hide aspects of ourselves when we first meet people and struggle to free ourselves from the lies we projected to protect our inner vulnerability.Inevitably, Josh finds out and is deeply hurt, but as he prays about the situation he hears the voice he recognises as God's tell him to marry Sophi. It's here that the story blossoms into a modern parallel of the story of Hosea - the prophet who is told to marry Gomer, a prostitute. Of course we don't know the background between Hosea and Gomer, and she is, of course, a (temple?) prostitute rather than a stripper, but the similarities are certainly close enough for the film to make us look at the story in a new way. Apart from anything, it's interesting that a script written by a church leader concludes with the Hosea character (and his new wife) failing to find acceptance in his church and having to resign.

Like Gomer, Sophi returns to her dubious profession even after she has married Josh. Ethan, not only unmoved but angered by her redemption is threatening both her and Josh. The use of threats to explain, and in a sense justify, Sophi's actions makes for an interesting re-reading of the book of Hosea. Gomer, is usually viewed far less sympathetically, in part because she represents "unfaithful" Israel. But Israel, and perhaps even Gomer, also faced threats which may have gone some way to explaining their supposed apostasy.In the end both Joshua and Hosea buy back (or redeem) their wives, and yet again the parallels with Jesus come to the fore. The three names are all derived from the same root, meaning "salvation", and the film becomes more and more of a parallel of Jesus's act of redemption. This is, in fact, exactly what Cowan promises us at the start of the film, in one of several narratorial appearances in the film, but it's also a theme that has been woven into the story throughout the film. The movie opens during one of Josh's sermons. He's talking about the calling of Matthew from Matt 9:9-13. It's a clever starting point as it not only tells the story of a sinner catapulted into a new life by Jesus's love and grace, but it also quotes from the very book that the rest of the film is recontextualising - "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6).

Perhaps the biggest indicator of this is not the film's portrayal of Joshua, but the character of Ethan. Ethan is without parallel in the book of Hosea. Whilst there are mentions of Gomer's lovers there is none of them who stands out as being responsible for her original situation, or her subsequent return.In fact, Ethan represents Satan in Jesus's quest for humanity's salvation. In a richly significant moment we see him dressed in red looking out across the city and reassuring himself that he "own(s) the town". It's not true of course - Ethan only owns a few clubs. But it evokes Satan during Jesus's temptation, taking him high above the city and making the similarly ludicrous claim that the kingdoms of this world were his to give away. The shot itself is reminiscent of a similar scene in Jesus of Montreal where a slimy lawyer offers that film's Jesus character the chance for fame. It's also interesting that the first time we see Ethan he is wearing a shirt with a cross sewn onto the back. It is, of course, a fake cross with no concept of grace, thus it's hardly surprising that Ethan forces Sophi to come back to work for him to pay off her supposed debt to him.

The film is surprisingly rich in this kind of symbolism. In a later scene Sophi cuts herself ending up with blood on her hands. Is this representing her being washed in Jesus's blood, or that fact that, like humanity in general his blood is on our hands. Indeed the film's visuals do much to convey its meaning on their own, which always suggests a strong grasp of the medium of film. The film's dialogue is also interesting. In places it's a little clunky, but, on reflection, this is most noticeable at the points in the story when this is, perhaps, what we'd expect in real life. Most courtships are a little clunky. I love the sharp, witty banter of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep, but for most of us the reality is different. We awkwardly stammer out a few words desperately hoping they will impress, rather than repel, the object of our affections. It's not Hollywood, but I can live with that.

What I did find surprising about the script, though, are screenwriter Dave Cowan occasional appearances to narrate, and comment on proceedings. Cowan is the pastor of a church of about 100 people based in Phoenix. The film has come about from his vision, and he deserves credit for producing such an impressive piece of work with such limited resources. Being able to draft in his MTV award winning friend Paul Morrell to direct is no doubt helpful but, even so, it's a real achievement. Cowan's intrusions onto the screen are a little unusual, and perhaps betray a lack of confidence in the rest of the production. But then perhaps itjust comes down to a question of genre /medium: is Oversold a dramatic short film or simply a beautifully shot sermon in the style of Rob Bell's Nooma series? Personally I would encourage Cowan and Morrell to pursue the former and leave expounding the meaning of their filmic text to the extra features on the DVD (or for when they show it in a church context). Whilst their work can and will improve, it's already good enough, and strong enough to speak for itself.

But the thing that impacted me most about the film was the way the role of Sophi was played by Crissy Moran, herself a former porn star. Moran herself admits that her former work in front of the camera required very little acting, and the same could almost be said here, because Oversold is, in fact, her story, a retelling of her discovery of God's love. There's a vulnerability and a subtle brokenness to her performance as if playing this role is still a little painful. But, the true story of redemption that underlies her appearance in this film is so moving it permeates Oversold, like light through a stain glassed window. And it's made all the more powerful by the knowledge that, in contrast to their movie counterparts, the church community behind Oversold did indeed welcome Moran so wonderfully demonstrating that freedom from our pasts isn't just something found in the movies.

Oversold - A Modernisation of Hosea

Peter Chattaway and I are trading Bible film newsbites today. He's just picked up my pieces on The Passover Plot and the MoBiA exhibition, but also added details about Oversold, a modernised take on the book of Hosea. It's been produced by sumoJACK and Elevation Church in Phoenix and recasts the story of Hosea and his prostitute wife Gomer. This is the first film about Hosea I've come across, so I'm looking forward to it. I hope to review the 32 minute film, which stars Crissy Moran, Stephen Zimpel and Grant Henderson, in the next week or two, but those wanting to find out more might like to try the official website. In addition to viewing the film's trailer, you can also download the film for just $5, see a host of production photos, watch an interview with Moran, or buy the DVD. There's also an interview with Moran, director Paul Morrell and writer / pastor of Elevation Dave Cowan over at Christianity Today.