Review of Loving the Bad Man

You will realize from the first lines that this is a low-budget film with the production quality of after-school TV. Once your expectations are set low, you are in for a treat. The tragic beginning is well foreshadowed and still creates tension and anxiety, while maintaining a "clean-ness" appropriate to the overarching religious message. The storyline then follows the separate lives of the Bad Man and the victim until the victim, driven by a combination of Christian faith and an undercurrent of subtle self-loathing, approaches the Bad Man. The victim's naive attempt at demonstrating forgiveness, coupled with conviction and determination, prove powerful even as the criminal element threatens. Some predictable plot lines serve as a framework to set up key moments of humanity. Unexpected dramatic outbursts and varying levels of heroic decisions by multiple characters at different times keep the film grounded in the reality of the human predicament, while revealing the potential for triumph. Several great lines and scene transitions reveal a screen writing genius that makes up for the low production quality. Themes of repentance, forgiveness, and redemption are played out organically - without caricature.