Film Reviews

Saved!

• Rating:
• Director: Brian Dannelly
• Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Eva Amurri, Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker, Chad Faust.
• Details: US/ 92 mins/ (12PG).

Mary (Malone) is one of the groupies of Hilary Faye (Moore), the (cheer) leader of a group of saintly girls called the Christian Jewels at the prestigious and extremely devout Eagle Christian Academy. It's the kind of place where the principal Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan) says things like, 'I'm down with Jesus' without any trace of irony, and where homosexuality is considered only slightly more tolerable than homicide. So when her boyfriend Dean (Faust) says he thinks he's gay, Mary thinks her only option is to sleep with him, 'saving' him from a life of homosexuality. After finding out that she is pregnant (and this is all in the first ten minutes), Mary distances herself from her social clique, taking up with the school's self-proclaimed bad girl Cassandra (Amurri) and the alienated, wheelchair-bound Roland (Culkin). Interesting but not entirely successful, Saved! is an all too obvious dig at the culture of the American Christian right, delivered in the form of a broad satire which misses as many targets as it hits. Aside from the odd inspired gag, the characters and performances are the best thing about Saved! Malone displays a quiet authority, Donovan has a deft comedic touch and Amurri, though a little showy, has the raw talent of her mother, Susan Sarandon. Brian Dannelly, the writer-director, avoids reliance on easy to digest teenage stereotypes, but in doing so he loses bite and edge when it comes to his ultimate point. Still, even if Saved! promises much more than it ultimately delivers, this is a fun enough ride while it lasts.

Review by Garreth Murphy