Saved! Review
by Andy Keast (arthistoryguy AT aol DOT com)June 21st, 2004
Saved! (2004): *** out of ****
Directed by Brian Dannelly. Screenplay by Brian Dannelly and Michael Urban. Starring Jena Malone, Eva Amurri, Macaulay Culkin, Martin Donovan, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore, and Mary-Louise Parker.
by Andy Keast
In theory, this should be my kind of movie. I have a bias towards school films
and fiction that portrays young people and children in a manner that isn't entirely stupid. "Saved!" is both. Its fatal flaw is its aimlessness until the last twenty minutes. Up until then, it's an episodic clothesline of teenaged dilemmas, and the actual screen story goes nowhere for the majority of
these episodes. However, being the good agnostic that I am, I can forgive it, because everyone in the young cast creates characters that are honest and earnest, and even when their actions seem wrong or mean-spirited to some, their
hearts are in the right place, as it were.
The main arc of the screenplay involves Jena Malone as a Baptist high school student who has a boyfriend who might be gay. She carpools with two sibling friends (Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin), one of whom is wheelchair-bound and seems to be apathetically going through the motions. The other loves Jesus to the point where I'm reminded of my favorite bumper sticker of all time, the one
that reads: "Jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you're an…" et cetera. There are other characters, including a Jewish transfer student (Eva Amurri), who has the market on nicotine and sarcasm cornered, and a pastor's son (Patrick Fugit) who offers some funny (and true) anecdotes on "Christian programming."
The movie is scatterbrained but contains some observant humor. Notice the way the pastor (Martin Donovan) hips up his speech for the students at a school conference ("…so who's down with GEE-OH-DEE!!?"), complete with arena staging and light effects. Or a scene with Culkin where he holds a sign that reads: *Will Dance for Food.* Moore gets the film's biggest laugh when she confronts Malone on the street for her free thinking. Not to nitpick, but Malone seems an odd choice for someone to lead a comedic cast, when she isn't, in fact, that
funny. Indeed, she has made a career out of looking glum and teary-eyed, and it's getting tiresome. The relationship between Culkin and Amurri is nicest thing about the movie. They have an "aaaww" scene where she reveals that she has customized her car so that he may drive sans pedals, and a good dialogue together where they notice a fellow student visiting social workers:
*"There's only one reason a Christian girl visits Planned Parenthood." "She's going to plant a bomb?"
"Two reasons."*
"Saved!" isn't perfect. The screenplay turns Moore into a villain too abruptly, and when the plot actually takes hold, it involves people carelessly leaving behind evidence of wrongdoing all too easily acquired and exploited later on. But then I suppose it stands to logic that Baptist schoolgirls would
not make good criminals. Some groups have taken terrible offense to the film (a Christian rock band and a church that was to be used as a location both withdrew their help during the production), calling it blasphemous, but I fail to see why. The characters harmlessly question aspects of their religion -as young people should do- and it's all out of their desire to be good
Christians.
Whenever the kids act heinously they feel appropriately bad afterwards. There
are moments that poke fun at fundamentalism and few of the more…outgoing sects of Christianity, but I've yet to meet a religious person -Christian or otherwise- who hasn't. The movie is hardly impious or irreverent. It's never heavy-handed and plays fair when addressing things like homosexuality or premarital sex, though I would take issue with how in recent high school films Jewish girls have been portrayed as whores among a population of immaculate WASP women. No matter, these are only trifles in a movie that isn't mine to begin with. I laughed, even if the bastard in me wanted to see the director cut loose and make the film more of a romp. Like "School of Rock" or "Mean Girls," it's entertaining fluff.
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