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174 of 177 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Totters at the end, but very strong overall, August 21, 2004
There is no easy way to clear up the debate that this film generates for those who are either religious or nonreligious, or religious but not fundamentalist, but I will say this: I attended a Southern Baptist college, and pretty much everything that one can find in this film I saw in real life. I was in a play where a girl kissed me on the cheek, to have her parents pull her out of school the next day for immorality. I knew a host of "good" Baptist girls and boys who could have written veritable Kama Sutras on things they can do together without having intercourse. I have seen so many good things declared Satanic that one would imagine that there is no room left for God. As one with an extensive evangelical fundamentalist background, I really didn't find anything too extreme. I even knew some devout Christians who were just as mean in their faith as Hilary Faye in this film. Overall, I don't think the film is anti-religious or anti-Christianity. But it is a critique of the narrowness of many Christians, a critique that I personally think Jesus would completely endorse. After all, in the Gospels, the two groups of people He had no patience with were the wealthy and the overly religious.
The point of the film wasn't to provide a Polaroid of what life in Christian fundamentalist high schools is like. If so, they would have included more of the really nice people that inhabit the schools. The point of the film is to highlight something that Jena Malone's character Mary (albeit, a not so virginal one) says to Pastor Skip near the end: "Why would God make us all so different, if he wanted us to all be the same?" I have witnessed first hand the way that many fundamentalist groups want to cut back on diversity, want to limit the number of legitimate lifestyle choices for people. I think the point of this film is that underneath the rather artificial veneer that many fundamentalist groups impose on people, they still are more diverse than they want to acknowledge, and the individuality eventually comes out, even if suppressed in the short run.
The cast is excellent, and I especially enjoyed Jena Malone as Mary. She does a great job of combining fragility and innocence and strength. The humor was sharp and to the point, and I found a host of the situations throughout the film to be thoroughly familiar.
My main complaint with the film is the last half hour, where the narrative starts falling apart, not so much conceptually as visually. Movies are always told with the camera, and not by the script, and the timing in many of the final scenes is just off a bit. For instance, where we see the Pastor Skip walking towards the hospital, and then away, and then back. Or many of the verbal encounters at the prom. The narrative flow bogged down and didn't match the rhythm of the rest of the movie.
All in all, this is a good movie about being in a teenager in a place that not everyone in our society is familiar with. With a better-paced final half hour, it would have been even better.
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61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Mean Girls" meets "Elmer Gantry.", June 20, 2004
I've heard that fundamentalist groups are lining up to protest Brian Dannelly's "Saved!", which is really too bad. This pleasant, charming and altogether rather innocent film provides a painless lesson about what true Christian behavior should be. The plot concerns Mary (Jena Malone), an innocent, earnest born-again girl who tries to cure her boyfriend of his newly realized gayness by seducing him. Her resulting pregnancy scandalizes the "Christian Jewels" clique at Mary's fundamentalist high school, led by the insufferable Hillary Faye (Mandy Moore). Some funny and lightly satirical complications ensue, enacted by a talented cast of teen-star royalty--not only Malone and Moore, but also Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit and Heather Matarazzo. The standout, however, is Eva Amurri (Susan Sarandon's daughter) as Cassandra, the only Jewish student at Mary's high school, who sets herself in gleeful rebellion against Hillary Faye's hypocritical rat pack. "Saved!" sends up various affectations of both the teen and born-again cultures, but with more affection than vitriol. The film is not anti-Christian at all, just anti-Pharisee. That anyone considers it controversial at all is more a commentary on society (and not a pleasant one) than on the movie.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best teen comedy to date., July 24, 2004
Forget all the hype you've heard about this movie. Forget the critics who consider it a great satire on religious fundamentalism and intolerance. Forget the critics who complain that it's not satirical enough, that it missed a great opportunity and went soft on religious fundamentalism. And forget the zealots who say this movie is nothing more than an attack on Christianity. Go into this film knowing that its foundation is a teen comedy and you'll probably come out feeling the same way I did; that you've just seen the best teen comedy of your life.
When I first saw this movie, I posted a review and gave it three stars. I can't stress how much I regret that now. I don't think I knew what to really make of it. I saw some of the reviews and heard some of the complaints about it, and think I watched it with slightly clouded judgment. Since then, I've seen it a few more times and am no longer hung-up on whether the movie is trying to impart a political opinion on me. I am able to see it for what's really there; a film with more heart than one of this type should have.
You'll be surprised by how many touching scenes there are in this movie. Seriously, they're some of the most moving moments you'll ever see in a teen comedy and they just keep coming. The best one takes place in the school's bathroom where the heroine, a teenager who's alone and friendless, carrying a secret burden many adults can't even handle, is tricked into confessing the secret by an antagonist. She breaks down and starts to cry, and is quickly befriended by the girl. Words can't describe what an unbelievably moving moment that is. It's the best I've ever seen in a teen comedy, and I grew up in the 80's, I've seen them all. After watching movies like this for some twenty plus years, I've been conditioned to believe we're not supposed to get moments like that in movies like these. What a wonderful surprise. It's a scene that caused the theater to grow quiet, except for a few moans of "Oh" and "Aw", where people suddenly reached for their pop to help wash down the lump in their throat (I'm not exaggerating, an elderly gentleman sitting next to me had to dry his eyes). I'm a guy, and therefore can't admit to getting tearful, but if I were a chick . . .
There are a lot of scenes like that in this movie. Some take place after her boyfriend is sent away; she is hurt and confused, and incapable of understanding how something like that could happen. In one scene, where the heroine first learns a crushing revelation, there is no dialog, we just see the expression on her face (Malone is amazing) yet it's absolutely heartbreaking. There's another, similar to that, near the end of the movie, where her secret is revealed. Or the scenes with her romantic interest in the film, Patrick. He's the good-natured son of the pastor, who tries to court her. He knows she likes him so can't understand why she rejects him. Another, when Mary's (Malone) mom is about to send her away. They're sitting on the bed packing a suitcase when Mary asks if she ruined her mom's life. Her mom leaves the room without answering her question and the camera shows Mary sitting alone on her bed, shaking her head, trying to understand. Wow (I should probably remind you, at this point, that this is a teen comedy).
There's also a surprisingly good scene between the pastor and Mary's mom, Lillian. They're at a Valentines Day dinner and she's staring longingly over at another couple who are sharing a romantic kiss. The pastor feels guilty about their relationship and has difficulty expressing his affection for her. Here was a great idea, a romantic scene between the adults that was just as tender and thoughtful as the romantic scenes between the kids.
There are many other scenes like these, I couldn't describe them all in under 1000 words, but none of them are depressing. Sad, touching, moving, sweet, funny, heartbreaking, romantic: there are a lot of adjectives I could use to describe this film but it always seems headed in a positive and upbeat direction. There is a unique combination of story, acting, direction, and even music that produced something so rare I've never seen it before: a teenage comedy with more heart than any melodramatic, mega production Hollywood will pimp out around Oscar time.
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