Rebel Love Reviews

A well-intentioned but nonetheless amateurish romance set near the Indiana-Kentucky border during the Civil War, REBEL LOVE concerns Hightower (Terence Knox), an actor who is hired to work as a spy for the Confederates. In the meantime, Columbine Cromwell (Jamie Rose), a war widow, spends her days listening to stories of past romances told by local merchant Granny Plug (Fran Ryan), an aging tramp who has been married nine times. When Columbine opens her front door to find Hightower unconscious, the spy--disguising himself as an Irish stove repairman named McHugh--is nursed back to health by the lovelorn woman. Their idyllic existence is shaken, however, when Union soldiers come looking for Hightower and, in the process, reveal to Columbine her lover's true identity. A low-budget entry filmed entirely in Alabama, REBEL LOVE is an attempt to reproduce the passions of a Harlequin romance, with a little bit of the Civil War tossed in for color. The performances (save Ryan's) are merely passable (Knox) or thoroughly unconvincing (Rose), and the Civil War backdrop is just that--a one-dimensional setting serving only to differentiate this love story from countless others just as trite.