It’s February, the month of over-priced flowers, candies shaped like hearts, and sentimental love stories. Christians know the Bible is ultimately a love story about God and His people, but there’s also a standout couple with a romance suitable for the big screen: Ruth and Boaz.
Hollywood has made a few attempts to tell the tale based on the eighth book of the Bible, Ruth. Can you blame them? Aside from being Scripture, it is a pretty great story of love, faith and providence: a desperate woman in a new land, a broken widow, a kind stranger, and a slowly building romance ultimately leading to kings and the Messiah. No dramatic interpretation can replace the biblical account, but let’s consider two attempts – one old, one new – and see whether these romantic retellings are worth a Valentine’s viewing.
The Story of Ruth (1960), available to rent on Amazon Prime (view trailer here)
This biblical spectacle is firmly in the mold of other more well-known cinematic retellings of Scripture like The Ten Commandments (1956) or The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), complete with grand action set pieces and a large cast. If you’re struggling to remember the action sequences from the biblical account of Ruth, you’ve hit upon one of the liberties The Story of Ruth takes with its source material. Hollywood had to stretch one of the shorter books in the Bible by adding in chase scenes, murder, and fiery prisoner escapes. Screenwriters guessed significantly at Ruth’s backstory in Moab and added a lengthy child sacrifice subplot in her pre-Naomi years. The child sacrifice scenes are creepy. These additions mostly work from a cinematic point of view, though they do delay us from getting to what is actually in the Bible.
I bought into the romance between Ruth (Elana Eden) and Boaz (Stuart Whitman) even with the narrative detours. Naomi (Peggy Wood) stands out as the old widow returning home with nothing but a foreigner as a daughter-in-law. The movie also ends with the acknowledgement that God used this non-Israelite, previously pagan woman to bring about King David and ultimately Jesus Christ. For all its Hollywood additions, it remains a story of love, loyalty and God’s redemption.
If you’re into old movies, it’s worth watching with your sweetheart.
Ruth and Boaz (2025), available to stream on Netflix (view trailer here)
Based on the trailer alone, I was prepared to actively hate this movie. Instead, I kind of like it. Produced by Tyler Perry, Ruth and Boaz uses an all-Black cast to tell a modernized version of the story complete with hip hop and social media plot points. Just like The Story of Ruth, this movie is obsessed with a creative backstory prior to the start of Ruth and Naomi’s story in earnest. Ruth Moably (get it?) is a singer in Atlanta trying to make it big. Tragedy strikes and Ruth chooses to follow her late boyfriend’s mother Naomi back to her old home in Tennessee both to start a new life and hide from her old mistakes and a menacing band manager. In her new home, Ruth finds work harvesting grapes at a winery owned by Bo Azra, a kind old family friend of Naomi.
Though it follows all of the biblical plot points, it’s not necessarily meant to be a “Bible story.” There are some suggestive song lyrics in the early portions of the movie, but I don’t know that I would have caught them if subtitles weren’t on. A few characters wear outfits that aren’t exactly modest. Still, Ruth and Naomi do find help and community in Naomi’s old church, and that’s almost impressive in a Netflix movie. Scripture gets quoted throughout, and though it’s well-meaning, it’s often out of context.
Singer Serayah plays Ruth, and Tyler Lepley plays Boaz, and they’re both pleasant to watch, with decent chemistry as they grow closer together at the winery. But the standout is undoubtably Phylicia Rashad as Naomi. She narrates the movie, and her affecting portrayal of the depression and brokenness is reminiscent of the biblical Naomi when she complains to her old acquaintances, “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”
This is more of a pure love story, and because it’s set in modern day, there’s no way for it to follow the scriptural ending that explains the eternal significance of Ruth and Boaz’s descendants. Because it doesn’t purport to tell the biblical story, I don’t mind the omission.
If you can get past the cheesiness of the trailer and keep in mind what it is and isn’t trying to be, you and your Valentine just might enjoy this love story.
My wife and I enjoyed both movies more than we expected, but we both agreed we’d prefer to go back and listen to our pastor’s sermon series on Ruth. Watching love stories can be romantic, but perhaps the perfect Valentine’s date might just be pulling up the sermon on our church’s YouTube playlist. But for your own sake, don’t skip the flowers!