Redeeming Love certainly looks beautiful; the locations are stunning and captured with excellent cinematography, though director D.J. Caruso seems to struggle beyond those elements to keep viewers engaged. It's refreshing to see a story unfold in a realistic setting, even if Cape Town is standing in for California – after all, many classic westerns were filmed in Europe too. However, while the film manages to achieve the visual style of a western, it doesn’t quite capture the overall feeling. The plot revolves around Angel, described as a woman with a good heart despite her profession, who is so desirable that the brothel's madam, known as Duchess, holds a daily raffle to determine which men get to be with her. There are multiple winners each day, and this complicated system actually hinders the narrative’s progress, prompting co-writers Francine Rivers and Caruso to quickly dismiss it. Michael Hosea becomes infatuated with Angel, so how does he try to get close to her? Does he buy all the raffle tickets or rig the drawing? Neither; he simply offers double the usual amount. It's odd that no one among the crowd outside the brothel has thought of this already. Another question arises: where does Michael, who isn’t a miner himself, find enough money to gain access to Angel on several occasions? Angel is resistant to Michael’s advances due to deep-seated distrust and animosity toward men, which is explored through numerous flashbacks that are so extensive they could have formed an entire movie of their own. These flashbacks also contribute to the film exceeding its 120-minute runtime. Strangely, these scenes depict Angel escaping a life of forced prostitution only to enter another life of willing prostitution – twice, perhaps even thrice, although the last instance is again involuntary. It becomes somewhat repetitive after a while. It’s not until Angel is physically assaulted by the Duchess's enforcer, Magowan, that she agrees to marry Michael; however, he first has to pay off her debt to the Duchess. The irony of him essentially buying her freedom in order to make her an upstanding woman seems lost on both Michael and Caruso. Beyond its cinematography, Redeeming Love’s biggest success is how effectively it conceals its religious origins. According to Wikipedia, this is a “Christian Western” adapted from Rivers' novel (which I haven’t read, though it wouldn’t surprise me if she initially published it under a different name), which itself draws inspiration from an obscure book in the Old Testament – none of this is apparent while watching the film, and that’s actually a positive aspect. Despite its length and slow pace, at least it avoids being overly didactic.

Source on TMDB