Loving the Bad Man

Fundamentalist christian propaganda that encourages people who have been raped to marry their rapists.

If you have not yet seen this film, I recommend that you don't. Sexual assault and rape are difficult topics to address in film, although it can be done in a way that both preserves the dignity of the victim and states a necessary message. This (frankly I don't even want to call it a film) steaming pile of trash did neither.

Instead, it's painfully clear that it was written by three men who have never, at and point in their lives, spoken to a rape victim. The female lead is treated like a prop, only a plot device to tell the stories of the men in her life. As a result, anyone watching this is being force fed the message that it's the victims responsibility to love and forgive their rapist so that he can have an uplifting redemption story. This content is harmful, and I would discourage anyone from watching it. Ignorance is better than misinformation after all.

Like other Christian themed movies (Fireproof comes to mind) the production value is closer to what you see on television than the big screen. Most of the players lack smooth delivery and the dialogue sounds more like a Sunday school pop-up book in places. I found the first 30 minutes of set-up to be rather tedious. If you can survive all the above you will be treated to a rather heart warming story of the value of faith, character, and perseverance. Instead of beating the viewer down it elevates you and holds up the best of humanity in the face of peer pressure willing to hold a person blameless for taking the low road (rather insistent that it be taken actually) . In fact taking the high road is shown to be very challenging with doubts and obstacles coming from quarters where it wouldn't be expected. This a an outstanding feel good movie that I would recommend to any age viewer. I take 2 stars based on a 'lesser' production value but few of today's movies will uplift your spirit like this one.

Recurring themes through this film would have the viewer believe that this film is all about redemption, faith, and the power of forgiveness. Bull. This entire film is a propogandistic attempt to push an agenda:

Abortion is wrong on all fronts regardless of the reason.

I'm surprised they didn't make the character, Julie, dying from a rare form of ovarian cancer that she endures rather than abort the child to save her life. Perhaps even the film makers saw this as over the top.

Don't be fooled folks, this is a "Right-to-Lifer" film that places a much smaller value on the vessel (Julie) than either the unborn baby, or the rapist (Mike) who slowly is becoming a redeemed character through this heart-tugging drama.

The Christian ladies who see this will definitely have their heart warmed, the Christian men who see this will be able to say, "See - the Abortion Doctor I killed last week was deserving of what he got". The rest of us who see this will be waiting for the setup where Mike gets out of Prison, falls into Julie's trap, and is castrated for what he did as she confesses to aborting his diseased offspring from herself a week after the rape and let's Mike know it was her neighbor's baby she was passing off as her own.

Unfortunately, our happy ending will never come.

This movie has the worst moral message I have ever seen, the people who made this should be ashamed of themselves. I don't have a problem with Christian movies, really I don't, but this is repugnant. The person who rapes a woman in a movie should never, ever under any circumstances be portrayed as the sympathetic character in a movie. The overall acting is terrible, but no worse than acting in any other Christian movie. the cinematography seems competent by Christian movie standards. But there is just no getting around the fact that you feel dirty after you watch this movie and it will take a weeks worth of showers to feel clean again.