Redeeming Love (2022)

A family member recommended this film on Netflix. We watched it last night. There is no more a depressing story than that of a prostitute in goldrush California times. As a film, it takes its time to tell the tale of her degradation and eventual redemption, but it’s not much fun to watch.

When I started researching the plot, I found out rather quickly that the story is based on Hosea and his wife Gomer. (I should have noticed that the man’s name was Michael Hosea: that would have given me a clue, or two.) His wife, whom he redeemed from a house of prostitution, was called “Angel” and she had kept hidden her true name, Sarah. She left him twice, thinking that she wasn’t worthy of his love and that she could never give him children. Michael’s brother-in-law, Paul, finds her in San Francisco, after three years, and persuades her to return to Michael, in other words, to ‘come home.’

The echo of those times to now seems significant, doesn’t it?

Where “Angel” had been for the three years is as broad a hint as you can get in a film like this: San Francisco’s Magdalen Asylum. Oh-ho, says I, Jesus and Mary Magdalene! The Gospel story of him forgiving her is based on the Old Testament story of Hosea and Gomer. Who would’ve thought it?