I love a good wholesome movie. I promise I do, but a wholesome movie with no real conflict is boring. “Ruth & Boaz” is boring. It’s just too clean. There is more conflict in a Hallmark movie, and that’s saying something.
“Ruth & Boaz” is the story of a singer, Ruth (played by Serayah), who is part of a hip-hop duo in Atlanta called 404. Through a voiceover by Naomi (played by Phylicia Rashad), we learn that Ruth was abandoned on the stairs of a local church. She’s always been grounded in her faith. Through a series of unfortunate events and after she quits her group, she ends up in Tennessee with her boyfriend’s mom. It’s literally glitter and gold from there.
Here’s the issue I have with this movie. All of the conflict that does arise, gets resolved very quickly. For example, her old manager finds her and causes a bunch of chaos, but that chaos is contained in less than ten minutes. Even though this is a Christian based movie, I expected there to be more realistic issues where God would come into play. Maybe I’ve watched too many TD Jakes productions, but I wanted some real push and pull. It felt very forced when something would happen (sometimes very small) and they would start talking to God. There is not issue with doing this but it felt very forced and obvious that the goal was to push home that this was a Christian movie about keeping God in your life.
So, when I watched faith-based movies, I want to see a struggle because, personally, that’s when my faith starts to waiver. It was just a little too easy for Ruth to start complaining about her group and how they were perceived, in her eyes. It was a little too easy for her to just leave. Even the carjacking seemed a little too buttoned up. I need some issue or conflict in this movie to either not be resolved to show that some things you have to wait and see and leave with the Lord or I need it to just last longer.
The movie is cute and I do recommend people watch just to see a nice movie that doesn’t cause you stress like “Straw.” There was nothing wrong with “Straw.” I loved the movie but you will not be crying (unless you’re a person easily brought to tears) or screaming at the TV like me when I watched it.
This film is one of many that will be produced by Devon Franklin and Tyler Perry Studios for Netflix, so more of these reviews will come. And, hopefully, they will not be as lackluster as this one.
