Ruth & Boaz Review
Director: Alanna Brown
Date Created: 2025-09-27 17:21
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Ruth & Boaz Review: Directed by Alanna Brown and produced by Tyler Perry, this latest romantic drama from Netflix redeems the Biblical romance story for the modern era. The film stars Serayah as Ruth and Tyler Lepley as Boaz, along with strong performances from Phylicia Rashad, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Gregory Alan Williams and others. At an hour and thirty-three minutes long, the movie tries something in between finding a balance with faith, with second chances and with love in an emotional way. Even though the film is emotional in places, it doesn’t ever seem to escape from predictable storytelling.
Ruth & Boaz Review
The Netflix movie Ruth & Boaz revolves around Ruth, a young singer from Atlanta with big aspirations who wants to sing about more than just dancing in clubs when she has a voice like hers. Everything changes when the father and boyfriend of her then-boyfriend are killed, making his mother, Naomi, lonely and lost.
Guilt-ridden and hoping to flee from the past, Ruth packs her bags along with Naomi to Tennessee, hoping to restart while carrying the past with her. It is here that she meets Boaz, a kind soul who brings with him peace and the chance to heal. The film covers how Ruth slowly earns the trust of Naomi, how she comes to fall in love with Boaz again, and how the two women find faith and community from tragedy.
You can’t dispute the fact that there are sweet moments within the movie. The bond between Ruth and Naomi is likely the best aspect of the movie. Watching Phylicia Rashad’s character of Naomi slowly accept Ruth, all the pain was heart-wrenching. Serayah, who portrays Ruth, does a great job of conveying a woman caught between guilt and hope. She conveys authenticity through her voice and presence on screen.
I also appreciated the Tennessee location, which kept the movie grounded and calm background-wise. The community atmosphere, including when townspeople help get Naomi’s house ready, warmed the story and provided a positive tone to the story. These were the elements that gave the movie the kind of emotional pull faith-based movies generally try to achieve.
However, Ruth & Boaz 2025 movie struggles with predictability. From the beginning, it’s possible to guess with whom the story will end. The romance of Ruth and Boaz proceeds pleasantly but without surprises. Even the principal fight with the antagonist, Sy, feels way too generic. He arrives as a typical music industry villain, set afire with threats and anger, but he does not have much depth. His narrative arc is closed quickly and effectively, so it feels like an aside rather than an honestly intriguing obstacle in the way of Ruth.
Another issue I had with Netflix’s Ruth & Boaz is pacing. Certain parts of the movie move too fast, such as with Naomi’s big crisis of faith. One moment she’s questioning everything, the next time through, with what’s happening, she appears to accept, with never enough time to actually go through what she is doing. Others take too long, such as with Sy’s incessant threats, which do little in the way of adding new tension. This inconsistent pacing makes the film slightly uneven, as the story wanted to do so much with so little time, but never allows enough time with each emotion to catch its breath.
Aside from all of this, the acting pulls the movie out of forgettability. Serayah is great as Ruth. She conveys the ache of loss and thirst for redemption without pretence. She handles interactions with Tyler Lepley, who plays Boaz, beautifully and believably, even as his character should have been more richly drawn. Phylicia Rashad as Naomi provides gravitas to the movie, but I had trouble with how quickly her character changes from venom to forgiveness. The support actors lend the movie zing, but are more background actors.
Technically, the leadership of Alanna Brown makes the movie straightforward and focused on the emotional evolution of the piece. The cinematography handles contrast well here, conveying the frenetic energy of Atlanta but the calm of Tennessee, with the net effect of highlighting Ruth’s personal growth in ways that pinpointed storytelling does not. The score also adds to the emotional richness of the piece. As the actors are also singers, the occasional singing pieces sound spontaneous and capture the spirit of the character of Ruth. These assist in bringing warmth to the piece, even as individual storytelling feels over-safe.
All in all, I am ambivalent about Ruth & Boaz. It’s not a bad film, per se. It’s a great message about forgiveness, about what loving is, and what having faith is and has the potential to speak to an absolute ton of people. It goes about it sincerely and has heart. But there’s just a little bit of a feeling of familiarity with it.
There’s nothing here that’s going to blow or move your mind, and the conservative framework causes it to just fall short of what it could’ve done. For a film based on so timeless a Biblical narrative, I wanted it to do more to take risks in the ways in which it approached grief and loss, faith, and redemption.
Netflix Ruth & Boaz Review: Summing Up
Overall, It’s an average watch for Christian romantic drama enthusiasts who are in the mood for something sappy but heartwarming. If second-chance and forgiveness emotional drama is your genre, then the Netflix film Ruth & Boaz should do the trick, but not wholly win your heart over. For me, it was emotional so and so, but just so predictable as to become forgettable. The movie excels in emotional centre and community vibe, but in having a one-dimensional villain and frenetic pacing, you find yourself wishing it had more depth.
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