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SAVED! Send This Review to a Friend
The teenage movie genre is turned upside down and inside out in the creative and brazen film "Saved!" The difference between this and run-of-the-mill high-school stories is that this particular school is a Christian fundamentalist institution in which loving Jesus dominates the curriculum. There is the usual little bitch, this time Mandy Moore as Hilary Faye, who nastily rules her classmates by establishing herself as holier than anyone else. But her born again stance rests on intolerance and domination.
The surprise of the film, directed by Brian Dannelly and co-written by him and Michael Urban, is that it turns out to be about real family values, not the hypocritical kind. Before the story is over, hypocrisy will be exposed and those in charge will have to deal with a pregnant teen, her gay friend and a revolt that overturns the smugness of those using religion a repressive vehicle even while behaving in ways opposite from what they preach.
Martin Donovan as Pastor Skip, the Bible-thumping school principal, has to agonize over the affair he is having with Mary-Louise Parker as Lillian, a widow and mother of a student. Jena Malone is delightfully innocent as the daughter, Mary, who finds herself in deep trouble for trying to aid her gay pal in a way not prescribed by the teachings of abstinence but one that she sees as serving Jesus. Purity of heart is the purity this film prizes.
Eva Amurri as Cassandra is both funny and warm as the rebellious Jewish student who has been such a behavior problem that she is assigned to this rigid institution in hope the discipline will change her. She develops a close relationship with Macaulay Culkin as Roland, Hilary Faye's wheelchair-bound brother, who has no use for his sister's tyranny. Both Amurri's and Culkin's performances are striking and the interaction of the characters they play says something about the needs and strength of the handicapped. There is another good performance by Patrick Fugit as the son of Pastor Skip.
Will some be offended by the film? Probably, but that's its strong point. It revels in satire, but also sentimentally mixes sincerity with the barbs. True, apart from its sharp point of view, "Saved!" adheres to a teenage film formula. But it is unlike any I can recall in the way it deals with religion, and its perspective is a warm-hearted exercise in tolerance that is worth cheering. A United Artists release.
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