My 3rd favoruite movie, I'm a pretty serious Christian and I always pop this movie in the DVD player when i'm feeling sad and it always seems to lift me up.
I own this, and despite the Jesus-centricness of it, it is great. I really just loved Patrick Fugit and Eva Amurri in this. Mandy Moore actually did a really good job and I was impressed.
Fails to deliver (us from evil). Few redemptive qualities. Starts off as a sinfully funny satire but soon falls from grace. Sells its soul to the "indie comedy" devil. Sucks.
As someone with a strong interest in religion's place in the public forum, in its nature and how it's used and abused by people, especially in America, Saved! was a movie that did catch my interest in some respects. I was wary of it for the reason I'm wary of anything dealing with it--either it will be condescending toward religion or endlessly preachy, or maybe try and straddle the two and come out muddled and confused. At the same time, it had Jena Malone (who I've taken a passing interest in thanks to seeing Donnie Darko in 2002, thankfully before the hype skewed perceptions of it), Macaulay Culkin (who I had to see in his adulthood, just out of sheer curiosity) and Patrick Fugit (from Almost Famous and Dead Birds) and those actors all interested me. And even if it had wound up any of the irritating possibilities I knew it could, I'd have to see it out of a morbid curiosity.
Mary (Malone) is a student at American Eagle Christian High School. She is a member of the "Christian Jewels," a Christian girls group at the school, which also includes lead singer Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) and Veronica (Elizabeth Thai), who is a refugee from Vietnam. Also around them consistently is Hilary's disabled brother Roland (Culkin), who Hilary claims to take full responsibility for and love, when in truth she simply takes advantage of this image and resents him otherwise. The school is led by "Pastor Skip" (Martin Donovan), whose son Patrick (Fugit) has recently returned from missionary work and a Christian skateboarding tour. Mary's boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust) has just revealed his suspicion that he is gay to Mary, leading her to a mistaken vision of Jesus urging her to give her virginity to him to "save" him from this. As almost anyone who's ever seen a teen movie can guess, yes, the P word results. And so failings of all sorts of fundamentalist Christian beliefs are occurring all throughout here, with even Skip dealing with the temptation to date Mary's (single) mother Lillian (Mary-Louise Parker)--despite the fact that he is still married (refusing divorce as "not a part of God's plan"). The leading catalyst for the film's conflict (instead of being a mass of secret violations of principles they all intend to aspire to) is Cassandra (Eva Amurri), a Jewish student at the school who constantly blasphemes and violates these principles more than one at a time. Hilary Faye's "Christian cred" is put in danger by her association with Mary and Roland, so she distances herself from the two and an escalating series of attempts to either annoy or get rid of the other group begins (get rid of as in expel, not kill--we're not violating THAT principle!).
As a teen comedy, dialogue and performances are nothing to jump up and rave about, but they get the job done. Nothing is embarassing (not even our pop-singing antagonist!), and it all works toward the film's aims of poking holes in fundamentalist arrogance and hypocrisy. Characters are treated with a surprising respect, Roland being shown to be unable to walk, but suffering nothing else for this--no endless self-pity, though plenty of it from others that he has no need for, Cassandra hates her environment but not the people (at least, not to harmful level...), and Mary's naïveté is not impermeable. Most surprising is that Hilary Faye seems genuinely well-intentioned and well-meaning in her disgustingly hypocritical and condescending actions--much like many of the actual folk of this variety. Intentions do not justify negative acts, but they can make them at least more palatable, and this balance is a pleasant surprise, as is the ending, that also does in a typical convention, where the antagonist usually gets their just desserts and our protagonists leave them in this mess and go on to their happy ending.
The issue I did have with the film, however, is that it attempted the straddle I referred to, in the final scenes. It seems pretty widely agreed (not unanimous, of course!) that the last third is the film's weakness. It seems to be suggesting that things like homosexuality are okay--but not because they're okay, only because "no one can possibly live up to all those rules." Er, what? It seems to be suggesting that Dean is naturally homosexual--endorsing the genetic (or similarly ingrained) sourcing of this. Putting aside those that have debates about this (a group that does not include myself, for the record), if the film says this, then essentially suggests Dean has failed a Biblical rule--well, that's totally ridiculous. If it is not a choice, then it is not a failure on his part as he didn't "cause" it. It also seems to vaguely justify most anything that IS a choice as an inevitable failure here or there. The film's heart is in the right place on this subject, trying to say that tolerance and acceptance are the most important virtues (a sentiment with which I agree), but seems to falter on actually claiming it. There's an appreciable level of difficulty for some (like Skip) in accepting this, for which I'm glad--American History X's resolution of its characters' racism always seemed ridiculously oversimplified and unacceptably unrealistic to me, where here we see that it isn't an issue of, "Gosh, this is bad!" and then everyone agrees. Some have to continue to wrestle with this. It's not a movie-killing problem, though, I should be clear about that. It's enjoyable, especially some of the hilarious digs at fundamentalist illogic (which I'll leave folk to see for themselves, because joke ruination has been a source of endless problems for comedies in the past few decades).
Such a different movie for Mandy Moore and still she acted brilliantly. Jena Malone was great for her role too. A very enjoyable and excitingly gripping movie.
Macaulay Culkin Was fantastic in this ,,I am not used to seeing Mandy Moore play the bad girl ,,lol don't feel like she felt this role it seemed like she was trying too hard ,or was somewhere else in her mind..,DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL THE SAME WAY ?(MY FLIXTER FRIENDS) Please let me know what you think? Would love to hear what you have to say .:) P.S It doesn't matter to me what religion you are we are ALL GODS CHILDREN :)
Fun to see Jena Malone is something different than Pride and Prejudice. She was a little like Lydia, but now much. Fun little movie. Also Macaulay Culkin, Mandy Moore and Heather Matarazzo were people I recognized ^^
WOW! LOVE this movie! It's tongue in cheek about the silliness that can be churches, youth groups, evangelicals. While the end is less realistic than "Juno" it is a fantastic movie. Who knew that Macauley Culkin could act?
The object of the film's scorn is the American Eagle Christian High School, an establishment that seems less concerned with educating than with whipping the students into a religious fervor on a daily basis. The film centers on the ironically named Christian high school student Mary (Jena Malone), whose boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust) confesses to her that he's in fact gay. Understandably troubled by this news and having recently seen a vision of Jesus, Mary decides the only way to "degayify" her beloved is to sacrifice her virginity so that Dean may be cured. Aside from the slight hitch that Mary becomes pregnant and Dean remains gay, her senior year is full of adventure as she attempts to disguise her horrific sin from the Christian Angels, headed up by the willfully religious Hilary Faye (Moore). Her differently-abled brother, Roland (Macaulay Culkin) whose personality is analogous to steel wool, takes the amped-up religiosity at arm's length, something that endears him to the only Jewish girl in school, Cassandra (Amurri).
Veronica: "Roland is so blessed to have such a thoughtful sister. You know, in countries like China, Hilary Faye would probably have been killed at birth.
Hilary Faye: And then where would you be, Roland?
Roland: China."
Brian Dannelly's film skates dangerously close to Election levels of satirical brilliance, the movie doesn't practice what it preaches; while bashing the religious zealots, those who would rebel against Jesus aren't held to any satiric standards, thereby diluting the impact of Dannelly's message. This gives the film an unfortunately easy excuse to stick to standard teen formula: meet-cutes, easily-resolved moral dilemmas, a climactic emotional prom night, but it also allows it to be sneakier with its critique.
Hmm. I suppose I can imagine why people might not like it if they were very religious or very straight laced. Being neither, I thought it was funny and bought the DVD.
i can remember thinging what the hell for this film - although it is so funny at times. although really contreversial. the stuff they cover in it must really piss some americans off. therefore i like it alot.
You can't judge the book seeing only the cover! Indeed I did it with this movie('cause of Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin) and I was wrong about it. This is a good one, an ironic about religion(fake faith). I recommend it!
Oh look, it's another girly pink rom-com with Mandy Moore and a bunch of other pretty teenagers who probably can't act to save their lives, it must be garbage. Is that what you're thinking? Jena Malone, amongst the finest actresses alive, portrays 17-year-old Mary who is living the perfect Christian life until her perfect Christian boyfriend tells her he's gay and changes everything. Mary has a vision which leads her to have sex with her boyfriend in order to save him from the 'spiritually toxic affliction' that is homosexuality, but of course winds up pregnant and in serious doubt of her faith. Not only is this film painfully clever and witty, it is also a tongue-in-cheek but right on target study of religious obsession and how it can affect people in a negative way. Furthermore, because Mary is such a modest, smart, selfless and genuine character, it's impossible not to care hugely about what happens. I must have seen this movie 25 times and it is still phenomenal, my favourite moment indubitably being Mary's 'please let it be cancer, please let it be cancer...' The mixture of tasteful wit, light controversy and an outstanding cast (including Jena Malone and yet more of the Culkin gene) earns it a place amongst my all-time favourites...
Jena Malone is awesome. Macauly Culkin is awesome. Patrick Fugit is awesome. The girl who played the rebel heathen is hot. Mandy Moore plays a good evil bitch character. Twas a pretty fun movie to watch while buzzing. The uber religious types were so annoying. This is a really lazy review.
MCT:October 10, 2008
MCT:October 10, 2008
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MCT:July 5, 2008
