Saved! Review
by Jerry Saravia (faust668 AT aol DOT com)June 29th, 2004
SAVED! (2004)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on June 23rd, 2004
RATING: Three stars and a half
"Saved!" is quite a miracle in many ways, and in other ways, it is your standard teen comedy. But the twain shall meet since it is full of laughs and comical yet truthful insights. It's not a huge success at what it does but, in the summer of Hollywood's more-bang-for-your-buck, you can say "Hallelujah!" just once.
"Saved!" takes place in one of the rarest of institutions seen in the movies - a Christian high school. Jena Malone is Mary, a senior at this prestigious school named American Eagle, who is facing a conflict of religious interests. Her boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust), a fellow student, has discovered he is a homosexual. Mary finds out when they share their secrets in the pool and underwater to boot! She is so outraged that she bumps her head and sees a vision of Jesus (not played by James Caveziel) telling her to help Dean. Nope, this is not an episode of TV's "Joan of Arcadia." Mary accepts this as a vision but it may be anything but, and it spells a drastic change in her Christian attitude. You see Mary is now pregnant, thanks to Dean who has been expunged to the Mercy House (a place for sinners). She thought she could save Dean by having sex with him and still be a virgin (are Christian high-school girls that dense?)
There are a couple of girls at the school lead by the-ever-dense Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), and this triad is trying to save any high-school student who needs saving. The principal, Pastor Skip (Hal Hartley regular Martin Donovan), leads his audience of students as if he was a game-show host. Skip's son, Patrick (Patrick Fugit, from "Almost Famous") has just enrolled and is a member of the Christian Skateboarding team and is, naturally, interested in Mary. That offends Hilary who notices Mary is not herself and has the audacity to question Hilary's beliefs. The Pastor sees the problem and asks Hilary and her two minions to help Mary ("Just don't do anything gangsta.") Instead, the born-again girls try to exorcise her (with a nice touch of adding "Tubular Bells" on the soundtrack).
Mary is not dismayed by Hilary. She makes friends with Cassandra (Eva Amurri), the only Jewish student at the school and the most rebellious. Cassandra can see past Hillary, aware that no young girl just goes to Planned Parenthood for the heck of it. And to really make Hilary steamed, Cassandra is going out with Hillary's wheelchair-bound brother, Roland (Macaulay Culkin), who isn't really Christian.
"Saved!" has a lot to say about high schools, young unwed mothers-to-be, homosexuality, acceptance, morally ambiguous issues, and so on. In other words, it brings up questions of faith that "The Passion of the Christ" avoided. This is a rare achievement in these days where preference seems to center on the typical teenage dilemnas about romance and sex. "Saved!" hardly cares about such issues, though there is a bit of both. Its concern is about Mary's own dilemna about becoming a mother, and about being expunged and sent to the godforsaken Mercy House. Mary starts to see the hypocrisies inherent in Hilary's triad and incessant praying and in Pastor Skip's refusal in accepting sinners unless they attend Mercy House. Cassandra, Hilary's brother, even Mary's mother are more open-minded in their thinking, seeing that morality is not always definable according to the holiest of Christian texts, the Bible. As satire, "Saved!" is hellishly funny and criticizes the foundation of Christianity in today's world more effectively and humorously than Kevin Smith's "Dogma." There are superb digs at Santa (which, when scrambled, spells Satan), Christian rock music, exorcisms, Lifetime movies, and who can resist this movie when Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" plays on the soundtrack? And gradually through the writing, layers of vulnerability start to come to the surface. No person in this movie is what they initially seem, especially Hilary. I'll take issue with some critics who regard Hilary as a one-dimensional monster. I'd say that her need to help others is a mark of the goodness in her, and I do believe that she believes it is all for Jesus. How can you hate a girl who wears a pair of white wings on Halloween? Even the crude shenanigans of Cassandra mask a girl who wants to be loved by someone she can relate to - how this girl ever ended up at this school remains a mystery. But the most crucial character is Mary, faced with a future she is not prepared for. Jena Malone has the appropriate moods of a girl waiting to be born again from her own born-again beliefs. Though the ending doesn't do her character justice, there is a great deal of sympathy for her plight. Yes, it all involves Hilary's cruel intervention (who is treated cruelly as well) and a prom nightmare involving a statue of Jesus. But you do wish Mary would leave that school and not be so suffocated with it all.
The teenage movie genre gets a real voltage charge from "Saved!" The movie has smart, sympathetic teenagers who, despite their individual beliefs, stick by their own rules and live by them. This is not a movie about Christianity as much as about the Christian ideals of faith and morality wrapped around some satirical barbs. You'll feel born-again!
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
Email me: [email protected], [email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
