Saved!

Released 2004
Stars Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker, Eva Amurri, Chad Faust
Directed by Brian Dannelly

The film follows the traditional pattern of many other teenage comedies. There's a clique ruled by the snobbiest and most popular girl in school, and an opposition made up of outcasts, nonconformists and rebels. We saw this formula only a few weeks ago in "Mean Girls." What's different this time is that the teen queen, Hilary Faye, is the loudest Jesus praiser at American Eagle Christian High School, and is played by Moore, having a little fun with her own good-girl image.

Her opposition is a checklist of kids who do not meet with Hilary Faye's approval. That would include Dean (Chad Faust), who thinks he may be gay; Cassandra (Eva Amurri), the only Jew in school and an outspoken rebel, and Roland (Culkin), Hilary Faye's brother, who is in a wheelchair but rejects all forms of sympathy and horrifies his sister by becoming Cassandra's boyfriend. There's also Patrick (Fugit), member of a Christian skateboarding team and the son of Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan), the school's principal. He's thoughtful and introspective and isn't sure he agrees with his father's complacent morality.

"Saved!" is an important film as well as an entertaining one. At a time when the FCC is enforcing a censorious morality on a nation where 8.5 million listeners a day are manifestly not offended by Howard Stern, here is a movie with a political message: Jesus counseled more acceptance and tolerance than some of his followers think. By the end of the movie, mainstream Christian values have not been overthrown, but demonstrated and embraced. Those who think Christianity is just a matter of enforcing their rulebook have been, well, enlightened. And that all of this takes place in a sassy and smart teenage comedy is, well, a miracle. Oh, and mirabile dictu, some of the actors are allowed to have pimples.

Summary by Roger Ebert

This movie made me smile and laugh throughout. It copped out a little at the end, but not too badly because the point of the movie wasn't to ridicule religion, but to ridicule religious fanaticism. I have to confess religious fundamentalists crack me up. Whether they're muslims blowing themselves up or Christian whackos blowing up planned parenthood clinics, you have to admit they're pretty funny. Their goal is to convert you or kill you. Now, that's conviction. This movie taps into the lighter side of these nuts and delivers some big laughs, but it also understands the fundamental problem with Christian fundamentalists. The problem is they don't understand what their savior, Jesus Christ, really preached. They're so busy trying to interpret each letter of the bible that they miss his overall message, which was to practice tolerance and acceptance above all else. He spent his time with the outcasts of his society (prostitutes, criminals, lepers, etc) not in an attempt to condemn them, but in an effort to lead them to a better place. Fundamentalists like Hilary Faye believe shouting slogans in these people's faces is helping them, but her real purpose is to judge them to make herself feel superior. That was not the purpose of Christ's teachings, and I think he'd be ashamed to see what some of his followers have become. I think he'd see there are good Christians out there, but they're not the ones who use their religion to separate themselves from everyone else. I'm surprised a teenage comedy had the insight and balls to comment on this topic so successfully. --Bill Alward, November 7, 2004