Especially known for its thrillers of the 2000s featuring Shia LaBeouf, D.J. Caruso returns to us with a romantic drama entitledSaved for love. Openly Christian inspiration and adapting the bookRedeeming LoveFrom Francine Rivers, we follow Angel's quest for redemption, forced to engage in prostitution following a past disorder...
Genesis
D.J. Carusois not what one might call an author: he takes what he comes and lets his camera drag so much on the thriller side (Eye of evil, Paranoiak) and drama (Salton Sea), through horror (The House of Forgotten) and now the Christian romantic western... A whole program! However, he did not completely turn his back on the suspense cinema, since in 2022, alongsideSaved for love, he also leavesShut Inwith Rainey Qualley and Vincent Gallo. Two films, if it seems to do them more to fill the fridge than to love art, which went well below the radars on our side of the Atlantic.SAJE distribution(Christian body, having promoted the recentStay a little.of Gad Elmaleh, or the all-newWin or dieand recently made so much noise) has nevertheless acquired the rights ofSaved for lovefor a DVD broadcast. Let's see what it gives...
Gospel according to Caruso
From the romantic western Christian version Caruso, here's something to make curious. The history ofSaved for loveis relatively basic: Angel (Abigail Cowen, sometimes seen inStranger Thingsand inThe New Adventures of Sabrina) is a beautiful night stranded in a move squatted by the goldsmiths, at the bottom of California. A few blocks away, the farmer devotee Michael Hosea (name of a prophet of the old will whose name means « Saviour », yes, we revised our catechism !) will by chance cross his path and fall madly in love with this Angel. But if he arranges to get her out of her despicable condition, he will not avoid the anger of his pimp, Duke (Eric Dane, well known thanks toEuphoria In particular). A synopsis that lets you think...
Song of Songs?
The Mommy Porn, the publishing phenomenon triggered by theFifty shades of Grey. Caruso, by picturing the book of Francine Rivers, invented the Catho Porn: a long-length telefilm that hammered a Christian message while spreading it and there, no doubt to spice up the viewing of faquins who dare to rub, sex scenes. But be careful, Christian sex scenes! If he dares some fleeting male buttock suggestions, the female forms are constantly truncated (one hand or hair to hide a breast, the frame cuts stack at the buttocks, etc.).
So no, we weren't going to seeSaved for lovehoping to be entitled to Lars Von Sorter, but the strange dichotomy that emerges throughout the film and that a particular scene illustrates perfectly: after crossing Angel's gaze on the street, Michael instantly falls in love with him and wishes to talk to him. He could have approached her directly or waited for her to finish her job, two far more logical solutions elsewhere, since there is a lot to know which customer can end up in Angel's room, as her success is resounding in the small village of gold researchers.
But no, Michael actually decides to try his luck by paying himself a pass and miraculously be drawn at random from the first shot. He thus meets Angel directly in her den, where she receives him in dress of Eve. A mirror game and his hairstyle allow the spectator to hide his chest, which remains only suggested, as well as the birth of his buttocks. In other words: the director and his screenwriter force sexualized encounters (without any scriptualistic meaning) while sweetening them to remain in the Christianly acceptable box of body representation... Funny big gap.
Telefilm with a testosterone budget
There is no need to inspect the ideological carcan of the film (place of the woman, vision of sexuality, etc.), locked up unsurprisingly in a apparatus of thought which one guesses in advance if one has knowledge of the basic material, or if one informs a little about its production companies (Mission Pictures International and Pinnacle Peak Pictures in particular, both specialized in the tinted film of Christian ideology). Perhaps the most surprising is its huge budget: $30 million (double the budget)Everything Everywhere All at Once, to quote a good recent film) !
So of course the reconstitutions give themselves the means, the image is sometimes pretty (even though the Malikian attempts remain very sluggish) and the skewer of actors emerges, for the most part, relatively well. There are even known heads, likeLogan Marshall-Green(already seen inPrometheus) or Eric Dane (Euphoria) which confirms his perfect incarnation of the roles of very antipathetic characters. But aside from this, the feature film locks up in a badly chosen music, sometimes syrupy to the possible (from soft/folk-rock to James Blunt sauce), sometimes over-signifying the stakes of each scene and never rising above what a telefilm would do, from an aesthetic point of view. And this is not the length of the film – more than two hours! – which will help pass the pill.
Final judgement
That's forSaved for love, which despite a huge release by Universal in the USA (more than 1900 rooms !), makes a resounding bide. Out of the 30 million advanced to finance the project, the film made only 9 million in the box office: a real disaster! And unfortunately for him, it is clear that we understand why...
Data sheet
DVD Zone B (France)
Publisher : SAJE Distribution
Duration: 129 min
Release Date: 03 January 2023
Video format: 576p/25 - 1.85
Soundtrack: French and English DD 5.1 (and 2.0)
SubtitlesFrench
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