Saved!
MGM
Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin and Martin Donovan
The Verdict: While the satire gets laughs, director Dannelly forgets that seriousness ruins a comedy faster than a rainstorm kills a tent revival.
Movie:
2 1/2 stars of 4 stars
Extra Features:
2 stars of 4 stars
Without a doubt, many will scream sacrilege after seeing this film attack a group of Christians, yet “Saved!” never criticizes Christianity directly. It simply aims for the people who unknowingly and brutally pervert the faith.
Mary (Jena Malone), a Christian girl attending a hip Christian school, finds out her boyfriend Dean is gay. While underwater in a swimming pool, Mary receives a vision of Jesus and a message: she must turn Dean straight by giving up her virginity.
After this preposterous mission inevitably fails, Mary views her teachers and Christian friends as fraudulent bible thumpers.
Jena Malone adequately portrays the questioning voice in Mary. Her performance sizzles with confusion as she turns away from her brainwashed schoolmates. When Jesus-centric Hillary Faye (Mandy Moore) angrily throws a Bible against Mary’s back, Malone hisses as she picks up the book, “This is not a weapon, you idiot.”
Unquestionably, Moore looks the part of the snooty, emphatic prig. Moore gets laughs for her blunt arrogance and stupidity as she publicly prays for the only Jew in her class at random and refers to her crippled brother’s condition as “different-abledness.”
Martin Donovan will crack you up as the enthusiastic Pastor Skip. During a morning session at school, Donovan jumps around on a stage and desperately tries to be cool with tortured phrases like “Let’s get our Christ on” and “Are you down with G.O.D.?”
However, the comic relief of the wheelchair-bound Roland (Macaulay Culkin) clinches the show. Culkin delivers sweet hilarity with his quaint sarcasm and matter-of-fact grimaces. In one scene, Mary asks Roland about his summer. Roland reads a magazine as he responds, “Well, I went rollerblading, water skiing, learned to kickbox. You know. The usual.”
While the satire in “Saved!” is enjoyable, the tired drama in the middle brings exasperation. Brain Dannelly’s comedy has enormous potential, yet seriousness and preaching shoot down some of the fun.
For example, a subplot showcases an affair between Pastor Skip and Mary’s single mother. This development definitely conveys hypocrisy in religious extremists, but where is the humor? In a repulsively awkward scene, Skip and his son have an argument about Skip’s unfaithfulness to his missionary wife.
Also, “Saved!” becomes incredibly preachy and sensitive during its conclusion. The script’s dark humor and exaggerated characterization surprises and enlivens, but this blatant commentary near the end echoes weakness. Listen, screenwriters: if I wanted this tedious melodrama and nurturing advice, Oprah would be on the television screen.
And even though this film can be daring, some of the situations lack originality; in fact, this movie rips off the brilliant “Election” in at least three scenes.
“Saved!” delightfully vilifies the Christian extremist and will bring humor for patient Christians and frustrated secularists. Yet director Brian Dannelly forgets an important rule of the comedy along the way: get serious, and laughs will dissipate.
Extras include commentary tracks featuring Brian Dannelly, co-writer Michael Urban, Jena Malone and Mandy Moore. The other bonuses are generally unimpressive. There is a short making-of feature called “Heaven Help Us,” but its brevity disappoints, and the information would not impress a five-year-old. The only extended scenes worth a view are “Hillary Faye vs. Cassandra Montage” and “Pastor Skip and Lillian in the Closet.” Depressingly, the only smiles from a viewer during the bloopers will be forced smiles.