Support Frock Flicks with a small donation! During Snark Week and beyond, we’re grateful for your monthly pledges for exclusive content via Patreon or your one-time contributions via Ko-fi or PayPal to offset the costs of running this site. You can even buy our T-shirts and merch. Think of this like supporting public broadcasting, but with swearing and no tax deductions!
When I recently stumbled across Redeeming Love (2022), a Christian romance western, I figured this would be a perfect Snark Week flick. The plot is about what you’d expect — pretty young woman is reduced to prostitution in order to survive the shitty hand she’s been dealt, who then meets a handsome young man who prays a lot to God to “provide” him a wife and for some reason devoid of logic decides that the prostitute is going to be said wife. It’s eye-rollingly sugary, and since it is a Christian film, the religious wank is laid on especially thick (the heroine’s name is Angel and her earnest young suitor’s last name is Hosea, for crying out loud).
The film commits some classic Snark Week blunders. For instance, this is Michael:
And this is Angel, when he first sees her and decides YES THAT IS THE WOMAN IMMA MARY:
There was a whole lot of chafing going on:
There were also some questionable applications of poly baroque satin that pushed the limits of respectability:
Oh yeah, there was absolutely flagrant neglect of hair pins:
The one good outfit in the entire film is worn by Angel’s mother in a flashback.
But then she shows up in adult Angel’s vision wearing something that looks a lot like a 1930s wedding gown:
You don’t have to go out of your way to watch this flick, but if you do, share your thoughts in the comments.
Find this frock flick at:
I spotted Nina Dobrev in the screencaps and then googled to see the rest of the cast; Angel is Abigail Cowen (of Fate: The Winx Saga and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Michael is Tom Lewis (of Gentleman Jack), and the film also stars Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria), Famke Janssen (everything), Arsema Thomas (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), and Logan Marshall-Green (Across the Universe, Madame Bovary, ex-Mr. Marisa Tomei).
None of them are A-list by any means but still recognizable enough names that I’d expect them to not be starring in a Christian Western romance that’s currently sitting at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I haven’t watched this film, but it’s an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Francine Rivers, and it’s a retelling of the story of Hosea from the Bible.
I have been going through the Bible in a Year podcast and so have recent context of Hosea, and… did they not twig that it is not a happy ending for Hosea? As in, it’s an extended metaphor for God trying to keep the Isrealites, and the prostitute wife continues unfaithful for her whole life.
Nina Dobrev? Honey, you were a Horny Teen Romance Vampire, for pity’s sake, how did you end up in Evangelicals?!?
On the other hand she does look rather lovely
In that first dress and it’s always fun to see what actors look like out of their comfort zone.
…
On the other hand I’m reasonably sure I’ve seen sexier Bible-bashing movies starring Charlton Heston (Ones not starring Mr Yul Brynner, even), which is deeply sad.
Dear goddess. If I want to watch whores and sweet young men on the frontier, I’ll see “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” for the seventh time.
The film does strike me as a powerful inducement to turn apostate and start sacrificing the local sheep to the Great Red Dragon.
I was shocked how old Nina Dobrev looked in this, but I guess she smokes. :/
This movie sucked ass. It sucked ass just as much as the book sucked ass. And if you’ve been in a legalistic church, you will get even a deeper level of ick, with the outright sexual harassment (he stalks her, marries her when she’s been abused and is too beat up to protest, then every time she tries to leave, he drags her back home… and this is supposed to be romantic???).
My fourteen year old self went ick over the book (and hid it, because it felt like porn) and my 42 year old self went ick over the movie (and didn’t share it with anyone, cuz it still feels ick and cringe).
Oh god I’d forgotten about this book! A Teacher had us read it in an English elective class, I suspect because she’d read it herself and wanted people to talk about it with (because she wasn’t the type for it at all). The screencap at the table reminded me of the stupid thing where Angel drinks ~pure wholesome milk~ while the other Hoors drink wine, because she’s just so good underneath it all!!!!
(Also, I don’t know if they left this in, but in the book Michael marries her while she’s BARELY CONSCIOUS FROM A BEATING AND HAS ALMOST NO CLUE WHAT’S GOING ON. Sure, he doesn’t rape her or anything, but he does take her to his house and keep her prisoner there- I couldn’t believe we were supposed to root for this guy.
Holy crap, Chemise/drawers were used in a couple scenes?! Also, Nina Dobrev wore acceptable/respectable undergarments?! What Timeline are we living in?!!!!!!