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I first heard about Saved! almost two years ago while it was still in production. Just reading the premise was enough for me to know that this was something to see and controversy would ensue as a result. A talented cast of young actors, teen comedy, and Christianity. That's the formula that plays out well here.

Mary (Jena Malone) is leading what would seem to be the perfect Christian life until one day her boyfriend reveals that he is gay. With some poor logic and confusing advice, Mary ends up having sex with her boyfriend to "de-gayify" him. Of course, it doesn't work and Mary ends up becoming pregnant. She experiences anger with God and judgement from the girls that she was once good friends with, especially the ringleader Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), a super-Christian who spouts religious lingo like a second language. Mary becomes friends with Hilary's wheelchair-bound brother Roland (Macauley Culkin) and Jewish bad girl Cassandra (Eva Amurri) who are also outcasts in the school, labeled as the people who need to "get saved." And then there's Patrick (Patrick Fugit), the new boy who has a crush on Mary, unaware that she is pregnant.

Of course the big controversy around this film is that it "makes fun of Christians." In all honesty, Saved! portrays the Christian sub-culture quite accurately, with some exaggerations for great laughs. This is not the dull Christian stereotype that we're used to seeing once in awhile on TV and Hollywood movies. This is the hip, fresh, new Christianity that rocks out on Sunday mornings. Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan), the leader of the school, says things like, "Who's down with G-O-D" and "Let's get our Jesus on." He explains at one point in the film that the whole thing with Christian rock sounding like secular rock is that if it's cool, the kids will listen to it and then they hear the message and you've saved another soul. The idea of saving someone is tossed around so flippantly by the characters in the film that it becomes a kind of contest for the super-Christians to boast about.

For those who take the time to watch and understand Saved!, it will be seen that the film doesn't criticize Christianity, it criticizes hypocrisy. It criticizes a religion where people front their spiritual side in order to look good, while internally they have the same problems as everyone else. This is not the kind of faith that lasts and the film shows that window-dressed Christianity in the long run has problems. A big point that Saved! makes is that life does not fit into the little boxes that people place around it with their version of religion. Ultimately it's between a person and God how they respond to life and things do happen in life for a reason. People make mistakes and need to be forgiven. Jesus forgave so why do Christians have to ostracize those who aren't like them?

Admittedly, the film's final conclusion is only half-true. The idea is put across (somewhat subliminally) that what we feel is what's really important. This isn't a worldview that will get too far. In all, Saved! points out the problems but doesn't offer a sold solution. It would be quite interesting to watch The Passion of the Christ and Saved! back to back. In Saved! we see how people are responding 2,000 years later to Christ's death and in many ways it's downright shameful. Anyone who enjoys satire that stings a bit will relish Saved!

Trae Cadenhead

Saved! could have been set in any high school---popular girl, her posse, wannabes, outcasts, indifferent parents and the need to control.  How familiar does this sound?  You can’t go through life without meeting a person so devoted or perhaps, enthralled, with a cause that it consumes their life to the exclusion of everything or everyone else.  And here, it is the word exclusion that makes the difference, because exclusion can mean excluding adequate medical information, safe sex information or emotional information.  Such is the storyline of Brian Dannelly’s film, Saved! that is centered on teens in a Christian high school.  Mandy Moore, playing against type, is the Queen Bee who always gets her way.  Jena Malone is the teen that defies Mandy, Macaulay Culkin is Mandy’s wheelchair-bound brother, and Eva Amurri (Susan Sarandon’s daughter) is Culkin’s Jewish friend. Mary-Louise Parker is Jena’s mother, while Martin Donovan is the pastor/principal of the high school.  What goes into being a teenager is brought forth in the script with humor and pathos.

In Saved! attending a Christian high school with its teen situations is no different than attending a public high school.  This is mostly a story of teen pregnancy.  There is a one-night stand and no protection. Mandy and her posse, including Heather Matarazzo and Elizabeth Thai, rule the American Eagle Christian High School.  Mandy takes care of her brother, Culkin, but lets him know every day that he should be grateful for it.  Mandy is also angry because she wanted an SUV and ended up with a handicap-accessible van to drive to school. Their parents are not shown.  Jena ends up joining Mandy’s singing group, The Christian Angels, and also has a boyfriend, Chad Faust, who eventually tells Jena that he thinks he is gay.  His parents send him to Mercy House, to have him de-gayed.  Before this happens, Jena has spent one night with Chad in hopes of proving him wrong.  Fast-forward and yes, Jena is you-know-what, but keeps the fact from her mother and classmates with the help of rebel Eva and quietly rebellious Macaulay.  Should the father (in Mercy House) be told?  Can Jena get through a pregnancy alone? Will the animosity between egotistical Mandy and Jena get out of control?  Will the married pastor stop seeing Jena’s mother?  By the way, the name of Jena Malone’s character is Mary.

Three stand-out actors in the film are Eva Amurri as the Jewish girl in a Christian high school (I keep getting expelled from other schools) who could be a poster girl for anti-smoking; Mandy Moore, who watches her classmates like a vulture circling dying prey; and Macaulay Culkin who knows there is a life beyond this town and his wheelchair. Mandy fervently prays for everyone and everything and at first glance, this seems to be a good thing, until we see that it is to satisfy her need to control.  Eva rebels endlessly, but is kind and Culkin is torn between friendship with his sister and trying to rein her in.  Adults are shown as being as emotionally divided as their children with the married pastor still finding Jena’s Mom attractive and kissable.  Does saved mean religious savation or being rescued from Mandy and her posse? 

Scriptwriter/director Brian Dannelly brings wit to the story, such as the scene of the girls (Emmanuel Shooters) at a shooting range blasting away at targets and the school-sponsored Christian haunted house at Halloween. But there is also truth: places like Mercy House exist more for those who send people there than for those it purports to serve. If someone is deemed different, then put him or her away so the group can’t see them. A philosophy, unfortunately, that is as old as mankind.

Copyright 2004 Marie Asner
Submitted 6/20/04