Ruth & Boaz (2025)
The new Netflix movie, Ruth and Boaz (2025) opens with a line from an eighteenth-century hymn that many will recognize but not necessarily attribute to the English poet William Cowper: “God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” This tender, heartfelt romance from producers Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin, director Alanna Brown, and writers Michael Elliot and Cory Tynan features Ruth (Serayah), one half of a young, ambitious black hip hop duo complete with slick makeup, coloured, straight-hair wigs, and skimpy stage costumes. Ruth is a beautiful and talented young high school dropout who has suffered from a broken home complete with the dark shadow cast by an absent father and the hazy memory of a mother who abandoned her at age five. We see neither throughout the film. Her love interest is the handsome and intelligent African American Boaz (Tyler Lepley, chef Ian of Harlem), dedicated owner of a Tennessee winery which he inherited from his deceased father. By contrast Boaz served in the military and earned an MBA. But besides clear physical attraction, Ruth and Boaz also share a profound faith in God which guides their decisions and actions. As we soon see, part of the mystery of Ruth and Boaz’s romantic possibility is that they meet at all.
The movie kicks off with Ruth and bestie Breana (Nijah Brenea), performing at a hot nightclub in front of a hyped crowd that happens to include notable hip hop producer, Jermaine Dupri (as himself). As far as contemporary hip hop goes, the performance is a typical assertion of black female (hyper)sexuality as the key selling point for the music. And although Ruth leads Breana in prayer before they take to the stage, even Dupri’s suggestion of a contract afterwards can’t shake Ruth’s knowing that she can no longer sustain a career which is not in line with her vision of herself and her goals. Ruth’s boyfriend Marlon (Chaundre Hall-Broomfield) who has arrived with his elderly parents in tow – father, Eli (Gregory Alan Williams) and mother, Naomi (Phylicia Rashad) – is loving and supportive, but while Eli is friendly and polite, Naomi can barely conceal her contempt for the “performance”. However, where Ruth and Naomi begin is not where they will end since this love story is as much theirs as that of Ruth and Boaz.
After the epic performance that should have left Ruth high as a kite and excited about her future, she informs their shady, thug-life white manager Syrus (James Lee Thomas) that she’s out! But Syrus counters with a threat about the $250,000.00 USD he claims Ruth and Breana both owe him for all of the time and money he’s already invested in their careers, a debt he’s determined to collect at any cost.
That cost soon becomes clear when Ruth is summoned to the hospital to comfort Naomi who’s been informed that both Marlon and Eli have been killed in a failed carjacking! But this devastating news is followed by a guilt-inducing gut punch when Ruth discovers that Syrus was behind the heinous crime, a way to start to recoup the money he believes he is owed. It is in the aftermath of this tragedy that Naomi and Ruth make powerful, life-changing decisions which open the possibility of healing through family, friendship, music, church, winemaking, love, and new lives in Tennessee. Why Tennessee? The state was Naomi’s home prior to the move to what she once saw as a bigger and better life in Atlanta with Eli. It is, of all places, at the wake for her husband and son at their palatial Atlanta residence that she is informed of the debts her husband was hiding from her, debts that mean the house and their savings are gone. Her abandoned home in Tennessee – something Eli deliberately set apart in his business dealings to protect Naomi – is now the only property she has left. Therefore, it comes as no surprise when Naomi boards a bus (she probably doesn’t have money for a plane) to Tennessee. The shock comes when Ruth, who has prayed to God for answers, also boards and declares, despite Naomi’s protests “Where you go, I go.”
If this sounds familiar, it’s because the premise of the movie is of course a modern-day adaptation of the Old Testament’s Book of Ruth. In the bible, Naomi is Ruth’s mother-in-law, who, after the deaths of their husbands, advises Ruth (and sister Orpah) to return home to their people. But while Orpah obeys, Ruth says to Naomi: “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried.” The parallels of the biblical story and the movie don’t end there. While the biblical Boaz was a wealthy landowner who first spotted Ruth gleaning in his agricultural fields, in the film, the successful business owner Boaz spots Ruth who has taken a job harvesting grapes in his vineyard.
Although their attraction is instant, Ruth’s family history (can you blame her for having abandonment issues?) and recent troubles with Syrus lead her to doubt Boaz’s sincerity and her own ability to receive a love untainted by selfishness. It is clear that, prior to Marlon, she’d encountered some not-so-nice boyfriends.
It is after Boaz demonstrates his no-strings-attached faith and belief in Ruth and her musical talent by introducing her to another music producer mega talent, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds (as himself), that Ruth slowly allows herself to believe that things may end differently. The encouragement of Naomi and new friend Lena (Walnette Carrington from Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Destination Wedding 2025 ) doesn’t hurt either.
But the sword hanging over their heads is that Ruth has yet to fully come clean. Naomi does not know that Syrus is behind Eli and Marlon’s deaths (a fact that she may end up blaming Ruth for) and Boaz doesn’t know about the life from which Ruth is still running. When Syrus finally arrives in Tennessee with his menacing black friend named Wolf (Mike Forbs) at his side, violence and destruction follow. Will everyone survive Syrus’s fury? Will Boaz understand and forgive Ruth for the things she has withheld from him?
In the end, it is Naomi, beautiful, bold and gray-haired who saves the day, emerging on her front porch with her shotgun to command Syrus and Wolf that she will not miss a second time and to announce that, “You took my husband and my son, but you’re not taking my daughter!” And indeed, that is what the faithful modern-day Ruth (like the biblical one), has become, Naomi’s daughter.
The movie Ruth and Boaz is a simple yet profound and sensitive film. It will especially appeal to Christian audiences or those who crave a moral message with their romantic content. For others, it may seem too chaste and sentimental. For instance, although Ruth and Boaz are both very attractive people, they kiss all of two or three times in the film and if you’re waiting on a steamy sex scene, you’ve picked the wrong movie. But we enjoyed watching a black love story with heart, where friends, family, and the church play a role in redeeming people who have lost their way. And if the gorgeous and talented Lepley happened to have a shirtless scene, so be it. We ain’t complaining!