Fun Times at Faith-Based High
Brian Dannelly's Saved! is an irreverent picture of religious fundamentalism in America. Director Dannelly has assembled a fine cast that includes Macaulay Culkin as the movie's best character. Dannelly's script, co-written by Michael Urban, is bright and original.
Saved! is anchored in its setting, a deeply religious community like Littleton, Colorado or Wheaton, Illinois, where faith permeates the culture. Mary (Jena Malone) attends fundamentalist Christian high school, where her friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) lords over the student body, admonishing others for the slightest deviation from the Bible. Hilary Faye's name, deliberately or not, is the perfect union of Hillary Clinton's left-wing Puritanism and Tammy Faye Bakker's born-again zealotry.
Mary's life gets messy when her boyfriend (Chad Faust) admits he might be gay. Before you can say "go to Hell, boy," Mary springs into savior mode, inspired by what she believes is a vision of the Christ, and she winds up pregnant. Concealing her condition, while Hilary Faye exploits every scandal, Mary questions her beliefs. Among those whose passions cross with Mary's passage to enlightenment are Hilary Faye's handicapped brother (mature and magical Culkin in a breakthrough role), Mary's absent mother (Mary-Louise Parker) and the school's rebel (Eva Amurri).
Others at Holy Roller High include Martin Donovan's Pastor Skip, who tries to make religion seem hip, Patrick Fugit as his skateboarding son and Heather Matarazzo in a pivotal role. Each character is important and no one escapes unchanged by Mary's faith-based attempt at curing her boyfriend's homosexuality.
Watching the kids (and parents) choose between conformity and non-conformity is a clever treat. It's not much deeper than an episode of Dawson's Creek or My So-Called Life, especially toward the end, when Urban and Dannelly grope for an alternative to Bible-thumping and come up with superficial slogans. But Saved! approaches kids' tough choices with wit and honesty.
Though the writers settle for a mushy message about tolerance, the best scenes reflect their skeptic-tinged humor. Cracks about Christians planting pipe bombs at Planned Parenthood, an anti-Jesus bumper sticker and Mary's thoughts about the Blessed Virgin are hilarious.
Mocking fundamentalist religion without making fun of those who aim to practice what they preach, Saved! depicts a growing, probably prevalent, trend in America's middle-class suburbia—deeply religious people striving to live by their convictions—and, unlike Hollywood's typical fare, Saved! spares us another Hollywood assault on everything one might consider sacred.
Saved! lags toward the middle, mixes plot premises and it lacks a proper conflict resolution. Malone, too pleading as Mary, never convincingly portrays a girl facing pregnancy. Mary's situation is left agonizingly untended—even Christians notice when a girl's in trouble—and, reflecting America's politics, abortion is never an option. Saved!, despite its flaws, portrays youths struggling to solve moral dilemmas, and it does so with a welcome sense of irony.
Saved! is anchored in its setting, a deeply religious community like Littleton, Colorado or Wheaton, Illinois, where faith permeates the culture. Mary (Jena Malone) attends fundamentalist Christian high school, where her friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) lords over the student body, admonishing others for the slightest deviation from the Bible. Hilary Faye's name, deliberately or not, is the perfect union of Hillary Clinton's left-wing Puritanism and Tammy Faye Bakker's born-again zealotry.
Mary's life gets messy when her boyfriend (Chad Faust) admits he might be gay. Before you can say "go to Hell, boy," Mary springs into savior mode, inspired by what she believes is a vision of the Christ, and she winds up pregnant. Concealing her condition, while Hilary Faye exploits every scandal, Mary questions her beliefs. Among those whose passions cross with Mary's passage to enlightenment are Hilary Faye's handicapped brother (mature and magical Culkin in a breakthrough role), Mary's absent mother (Mary-Louise Parker) and the school's rebel (Eva Amurri).
Others at Holy Roller High include Martin Donovan's Pastor Skip, who tries to make religion seem hip, Patrick Fugit as his skateboarding son and Heather Matarazzo in a pivotal role. Each character is important and no one escapes unchanged by Mary's faith-based attempt at curing her boyfriend's homosexuality.
Watching the kids (and parents) choose between conformity and non-conformity is a clever treat. It's not much deeper than an episode of Dawson's Creek or My So-Called Life, especially toward the end, when Urban and Dannelly grope for an alternative to Bible-thumping and come up with superficial slogans. But Saved! approaches kids' tough choices with wit and honesty.
Though the writers settle for a mushy message about tolerance, the best scenes reflect their skeptic-tinged humor. Cracks about Christians planting pipe bombs at Planned Parenthood, an anti-Jesus bumper sticker and Mary's thoughts about the Blessed Virgin are hilarious.
Mocking fundamentalist religion without making fun of those who aim to practice what they preach, Saved! depicts a growing, probably prevalent, trend in America's middle-class suburbia—deeply religious people striving to live by their convictions—and, unlike Hollywood's typical fare, Saved! spares us another Hollywood assault on everything one might consider sacred.
Saved! lags toward the middle, mixes plot premises and it lacks a proper conflict resolution. Malone, too pleading as Mary, never convincingly portrays a girl facing pregnancy. Mary's situation is left agonizingly untended—even Christians notice when a girl's in trouble—and, reflecting America's politics, abortion is never an option. Saved!, despite its flaws, portrays youths struggling to solve moral dilemmas, and it does so with a welcome sense of irony.
