Saved! Review

"Saved!" reviews

Movie

Saved!

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-04-02 21:27:36

Rating

2.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Faith takes a hip, raised-eyebrow beating in this biting yet surprisingly earnest dark comedy about the trials and tribulations of a Christian teenager whose eyes are suddenly opened to the real truth.

Story

Mary (Jena Malone) -- born again at the age of 3 and an unquestioning bible thumper ever since -- is about to start her senior year at American Eagle Christian High School, and God is smiling on her. She and her pretty, devout friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) are popular, she has a handsome boyfriend, Dean (Chad Faust), and she religiously rocks out at Christian concerts. The first sign of trouble is when ice-skating, chastity embracing Dean tells Mary he thinks he's gay. Determined to bring her man back to the Lord, Mary makes a deal with Jesus: She'll seduce Dean if the Lamb of God then restores her ''emotional'' and ''spiritual'' virginity. Cut to a few weeks later: Dean-o's been packed off to sexuality rehab, Mary can't keep her breakfast down, and all of a sudden Jesus is looking a lot less like a pal and a lot more like a used car salesman. With the core of her faith shrinking as her belly is expanding, Mary sees her peers in a whole new light -- ''perfect'' Hilary Faye has plenty of flaws, and ''bad girl'' Cassandra (Eva Amurri) might not be the spawn of Satan after all. All of which helps Mary and company discover what being a Christian really means -- just in time for prom!

Acting

The cast of Saved! is almost as eclectic a mix as a real high school class. Malone, Amurri (Susan Sarandon's daughter), Patrick Fugit (as alterna-cutie skateboarder Patrick), and Heather Matarazzo (as blunt hanger-on Tia) are all card-carrying members of the Hip Indie Actors club, while Moore and Macaulay Culkin (as Hilary Faye's wheelchair-bound brother Roland) come from the Much-Mocked Pop Culture Icon school. All acquit themselves admirably, with Moore and Amurri as particular standouts. Moore has Hilary Faye's mix of smug self-entitlement and hollow concern nailed: This is one pop tart who knows how to play a sugar-coated bitch. Her showy piousness is particularly amusing when you contrast it with her PAX-worthy performance as a doomed preacher's daughter in A Walk to Remember. Playing American Eagle's token Jewish student, Amurri expertly offers glimpses of tough-talking Cassandra's inner vulnerability and warm heart; her scenes with Culkin's wryly cynical Roland are some of the movie's best. Malone is occasionally a bit tepid, but her sparks with Fugit seem real. The token adult actors -- Mary-Louise Parker as Mary's trashy, widowed mother, Lillian, and Martin Donovan as principal Pastor Skip (whose insecurity almost overwhelms his own faith) -- also turn in strong performances.

Direction

Saved! made its debut at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and it's not hard to see why: Brian Dannelly's film has ''indie'' written all over it. Dannelly deserves credit for pushing the envelope as far as he has -- suffice it to say that Saved! probably won't go over so well in the heartland (or even the suburbs) -- but the film isn't a total success. Its mix of dark humor and sincere sentiment is a bit jarring; just when you're guffawing at Dannelly's send-up of ''hip Christianity'' in the form of Pastor Skip's unbelievably lame attempts to connect with his young flock (''let's get our Christ on!'') or Hilary Faye's forceful attempts to perform a drive-by saving on the wayward Mary, you land with a bump as Mary and her mom share a quiet moment or Patrick and his dad exchange some tense words. It's obvious that Dannelly didn't want Saved! to be dismissed as mere parody, but the film strays too far into spoof territory to be a drama, and vice versa.

Bottom Line

Heathers, this ain't, but a strong cast -- particularly teen songbird Mandy Moore -- and a sharp sense of humor make Saved! a natural for the indie crowd.

Movie

SAVED!

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-25 21:37:36

Provider

Review

Evangelical teenagers, an accidental pregnancy and issues of acceptance: no, it isn't an episode of The Jerry Springer Show but a new satire from director Brian Dannelly.

Saved! centres on Mary (Jena Malone), a devoutly Christian all-American girl who accidentally finds her herself pregnant after she hears Jesus tell her to give herself to her gay boyfriend in a bid to 'cure' him. Her condition doesn't sit too well with her peers and, feeling betrayed by her faith, Mary starts hanging out with the non-religious kids at her very religious school. Meanwhile Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) starts a campaign to get her fornicating former friend kicked out of school.

Religion is a tricky subject to tackle in any medium, especially when it's being used as a tool for comedy, and this is perhaps something Dannelly has overlooked. Sure, feel free to poke fun, but for many their faith is everything, and a little balance would have been a good idea.

The majority of the Christian characters here are portrayed as blinkered and pious while the 'cool' kids, including a paraplegic (Macaulay Culkin) and a Jewish Goth (Eva Amurri), are much more interesting and well-developed.

That's not to say there's nothing to enjoy about Saved! There's an entertaining sub plot revolving around Mary's mother (Mary Louise Parker) and Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan) and Mandy Moore plays up her girl-next-door reputation as Hilary Faye, a determined young lady who as she tells us, while throwing a book at Mary, is just "filled with Christ's love."

Unfortunately, whatever Dannelly and co-writer Michael Urban's beliefs maybe they should have spent a bit more time thinking about what message they wanted to explore instead of just taking pot shots at an issue that could do with a more reasoned examination.